A TOUR THROUGHT THE WHOLE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN VOL-1

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*f DANIEL DEFOE (FOE) f*

Born in St Giles about 1660. Joined Mon-

mouth's army, 1685; William Hi's, 1688.

Employed in the Glass Duty Office, 16959.

Worked as journalist, pamphleteer, poet and

novelist. Toured Britain as government

agent. Died in 1731.

DANIEL DEFOE

A Tour Through

the WTiole Island of

Great Britain

by

G. E>. H. COLE

ctncl
D. C. BROWNING

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME ONE

X>ENX : LONDON

EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY

JDUTXON : NEW YORK

Introduction to *The Tour Through Scotland * 9
J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd, 1962

All rights reserved
Made in Great Britain

at the
Aldine Press Letchworth Herts

for

J. M. DENT & SONS LTD

Aldine House Bedford Street London

First published in Ever/mans Library 2928

Revised edition, with * The Tour Through Scotland * 3 2962.

PREFATORY NOTE

To the Everyman edition of Defoe's Toiw Through England
and Wales there has now been added the section on Scotland,
thus providing in two volumes the entire Tour Through the
Whole Island of Great Britain published in 1724-6. The Scottish
part is in some ways even more interesting than the rest, both
because of the lack of other data about eighteenth-century
Scotland and because of the critical period it covers in the
relations df the two countries. Defoe's tour, which draws upon
material gathered in the early years of the century, gives a full
and well-informed account of conditions in Britain before and
after the Union of the Parliaments in 1707.

A separate introduction has been provided for the new
section, giving some account of the historical background and
of Defoe's unique part in it, and a completely new index has
been compiled for the entire work.

D. C. B.

1962.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOUR
THROUGH ENGLAND AND WALES

BETWEEN the civil commotions of the seventeenth century
and the great changes, political and economic, of the eventful
years after Watt's steam engine and the French and American
Revolutions lies a tract of time, well known to students of
politics and literature, but for the economic historian still
largely uncharted and unexplored. Economic histories, until
the last few years, have been apt to deal fully with the days
of Queen Elizabeth and then, after a half-hearted sally into
the seventeenth century, to take a deep breath and leap
straight to the Industrial Revolution. The "antecedents"
of that revolution are, indeed, described; and we are told
a good deal about the "Mercantile System" and the State's
ways of regulating trade and commerce, and also a good deal
about the so-called "Domestic System" in the textile in-
dustries. A famous passage from Defoe's Tour, which I am
seeking to introduce to the modern reader, is often quoted,
and hardly less often misunderstood, when the "Domestic
System" is being described. We are told of Cromwell's Navi-
gation Act, and, very hazily, of Walpole's economic reforms.
The East India Company and the newly created Bank of
England loom large in the background. But the picture of
economic and social England in the Augustan Age is left
woefully incomplete and more than a little misleading even
in the best of the text-books. In all of them, there is too much
about Mercantilism and the "Domestic System," and too
little about the social and economic structure of the British
community in *>" dawning time of the modern age.

Slowly, indeed, this defect is being put right. Historians
who quarrel about the effects of the Industrial Revolution
and its repercussions upon the working people are compelled
to go back in search of evidence for the support of their
several opinions. Mrs. George's scholarly London Life in the
Eighteenth Century has been used by partisans as a counter-
blast to the alleged radical romanticism of the picture painted
by Mr. and Mrs. Hammond in their books on the period of

vii

viii DEFOE'S TOUR

the Industrial Revolution. Was that period one of crushing
severity, misfortune and degradation for the workers, or was
it, on the contrary, one of chequered but indubitable economic
and social advance? The question cannot be answered until
we know what England in the late seventeenth and early
eighteenth centuries was like; and, until quite recently, most
of those who were active in the argument had hardly begun
to know this,

Daniel Defoe's Tour through the Whole Island of Great
Britain, though it makes no pretence of providing a detailed
or accurate survey of the condition of the country, is by far
the most graphic contemporary account of the state of
economic and social afiairs near the beginning of the eigh-
teenth century. Read in conjunction with certain other books
of its astonishingly industrious and versatile author with
his Complete English Tradesman, his Plan of the English Com-
merce, and his Family Instructor, for example it does succeed
in conveying an impression which no derivative history, how-
ever brilliant or scholarly, is ever likely to convey. For Defoe
was, by temperament and way of life, extraordinarily well-
fitted to paint the picture of that bustling time of economic
and social transition in which he lived, and of which his own
life was a remarkable manifestation. He wrote his Tour,
indeed, in the guise of a popular guide-book; and as a guide-
book it achieved a great success, passing through nine distinct
editions between its first issue (1724-6) and 1778, and under-
going revision at the hands of several successive editors, of
whom one was Samuel Richardson, the author of Pamela
and of Clarissa Harlowe, These editors may have served their
immediate purpose; but, from the standpoint of the modern
reader they spoilt the book, and only Defoe's own edition,
from which this reprint is made, will give him what he needs.
For Defoe's book, though it served as a guide-book, was a
good deal besides. He put into it not merely the usual descrip-
tions of historic places and buildings, seats of the noblemen
and gentlemen who were the unquestioned political rulers of
the England of his day, picturesque scenes and anecdotes
after the fashion of the times, and travellers' information of
the approved sort, but also the things that interested him,
and seemed to him significant of the great social transition
he saw proceeding around him. So much did these latter things
concern him that he was often perfunctory, and not seldom
inaccurate, in providing the customary tourist's fare. In

INTRODUCTION ix

describing Oxford, for example, he annexed the Codrington
Library to Magdalen instead of All Souls'; and slips of this
sort are studded throughout the book. But this was because
Oxford did not really interest him. He looked at England
with the eye of a tradesman, appraising most things in the
light of their contribution to the economics of the national
life, and most people in accordance with their place in the
economic rather than the social system. A gentleman's house
interested him most when it was occupied by an upstart
merchant or financier, a nobleman when he had married into
trade. And so, while he might "mug up" his facts about the
picturesque and the merely antiquarian out of some previous
guide-book, and often get them wrong, he did not often make
mistakes when he was describing what seemed to him really
living and important.

Defoe's Tour is to be read, then, to-day above all for the
light which it throws on the economic and social condition
of England half a century or so before the coming of the
Industrial Revolution. In the shadow of that great series of
changes, the England that went before is apt to appear static
and unchanging. The French Revolution in the realms of
thought and government, the great inventions and the en-
closure movement in the realm of economic life, so overshadow
earlier developments as to hide their real significance. It is
easy to fall into the belief that squirearchy was practically
unchallenged before 1789, that agriculture and the "Domestic
System" completely dominated economic life till the coming
of Watt's steam engine and the great textile inventions, that
the capitalist class was a product of steam and power-driven
machinery, and that a proletariat was unknown until the
advent of the "Factory System." Such beliefs can hardly
survive a reading of Defoe's Tour. The England which he
describes is, indeed, remote enough from the modern England
of steam-power and joint-stock organisation; but it is even
more remote from the half-primitive rural oligarchy which is
often mistaken for a picture of the England of two centuries ago.

The England of Defoe's day was, doubtless, to a great
extent static in a purely political sense. It had settled down
to a period of stable government under a powerful landed
aristocracy with a Hanoverian king. But this stability was
very new, and the memory of the great troubles of the
seventeenth century was fresh in men's minds. The Jacobites
still seriously menaced it from the North; and the Union

*820

x DEFOE'S TOUR

with Scotland, in the making of which Defoe played a not
unimportant part, was but two decades old. The landed
classes were firmly in the saddle; and some sort of toleration
was beginning to be in fashion sure sign of settling down.
But the aristocracy could govern only on terms; and the
chief condition of its power was that it should recognise the
importance, and meet the needs, of the commercial interest.
The men of substance in the business world were not yet
making the claim to govern the country themselves. But they
had no mind that it should be governed out of harmony
with their views.

Everywhere in Defoe's book, the rapid rise of the mercantile
classes confronts the reader as an outstanding social fact.
London is rapidly ringing itself round with suburbs full of the
substantial residences of successful tradesmen. One country
seat after another is found to have passed into the possession
of some great merchant, or to have been maintained by the
foresight of its noble owner in marrying into trade. There
are abundant signs of that salient characteristic of the English
aristocracy of the eighteenth century its success in absorbing
and fusing its own interest with the upper strata of the
commercial classes. This success has often been adduced in
order to explain why, when France had a Revolution, Great
Britain had only a constitutional and belated Reform.

The English political system was static in appearance, but
in reality it was in process of constant adaptation. The rotten
borough, owned by the "borough lord," was even on occasion
a source of its power. For it enabled the merchant to buy his
way into Parliament, and rise, by double purchase of seat and
lands, into the charmed circle of the governing class. The
French aristocracy closed itself to the new men, and was
swept away: the English left the door open, and was able,
not merely to avert revolution aud postpone reform, but even
in large measure to hold its possessions and its prestige even
when the inevitable reform came. Even after 1832, the English
Parliament remained predominantly aristocratic. The events
of the seventeenth century had saved the English aristocracy
from exclusiveness, and had taught it to value power above
exclusive privilege and ancestral prestige. It was already
half commercialised in Defoe's day.

The trade and commerce of the early eighteenth century,
on which the merchant class was rising swiftly to wealth and
power, were of course widely different from the trade and

INTRODUCTION xi

commerce of nineteenth-century England. For one thing, the
entire social configuration of the country was different. The
great centres of population were in the South and the Southern
Midlands: the North, though the wool industry was already
growing fast in the West Riding, the coal trade fully estab-
lished round the Tyne, and Lancashire rising rapidly in
importance, was in comparison sparsely peopled. Save for
the widely spread provenance of the wool industry, manu-
facturers avoided, wherever possible, the interior of the
country, and gathered closely round the ports and navigable
rivers. Till the coming of the canals no other course was open.
The manufacturer who carried on his trade in the interior,
unless he served a purely local public, was sorely handicapped,
and found much ado in getting his wares to market. Defoe
comments, indeed, on the great progress made in the first
quarter of the eighteenth century in the construction of turn-
pike roads : but the turnpikes of his day were made for travellers
rather than for commodities, and served mainly the populous
residential areas of the South. The North and even the Mid-
lands were still suffering under the handicap of roads which
the parishioners reluctantly maintained by throwing into the
quagmire a few hurdles, loose earth, and a cartload or two of
stones, Birmingham, for example, despite the enterprise of
its citizens, was held back all through the eighteenth century
by the inconvenience of its geographical situation.

We must learn, then, to see the map of England in a new
way in order to realise the effective shape of the country two
centuries ago. The mass of the people lived in the South. There
were the best agriculture, the most flourishing village life, the
main concentration of wealth and activity. There, too, were
the old-established centres of the wool industry in the Eastern
and South- Western Counties the home of the "Domestic
System." The iron industry, though it was beginning to migrate
in search of fuel, was still vigorous in Sussex. Next to the mer-
chants of London, the Bristol traders were still the foremost
in commerce, though Liverpool was growing fast, and Glasgow
was building up its trading connections with the American
colonies and the West Indies. All round the coast but especi-
ally in the South were studded little ports of vital significance
in the national lif e. For to these ports came, by road or river,
the merchandise of the interior, seeking ever the shortest route
to the sea, which afforded by far the cheapest and easiest means
of transport. Many of these little ports had their own commerce

xii DEFOE'S TOUR

with foreign lands; but most of them were chiefly occupied in
carrying goods to the great ports of England itself and
above all to London. Coastwise shipping possessed an economic
importance which it is hard to appreciate in a railway age.

London stood out pre-eminent. Again and again Defoe
records, almost with awe, the overwhelming significance of
the Metropolis in the life of the nation. Relatively to the rest
of the country, London was even larger two centuries ago
than it is to-day. And in it were concentrated a vastly greater
share of the national wealth, and a far larger proportion of
the national trade. Place after place, we are told, as Defoe
journeys round the island, lives mainly by supplying the
population of London with the means of life and luxury, or
by ministering to London's demand for goods to send out
into the markets of the world. London is by far the greatest
consumer; and it is also an entrep6t centre of overwhelming
importance in overseas commerce.

Overseas commerce itself looms large in Defoe's description.
England was already a great exporter and importer of goods
of many sorts. She specialised in the production of woollen
goods designed to fit -tie needs and tastes of particular foreign
markets. Her traders with the East Indies and the West
Indies were already busy with their long and fertile rivalries
and contentions. Defoe finds indeed ports that are silting up
and falling into disuse. But this is not a sign of commercial
decay, but itself an indication of the growth of commerce.
The new merchant ships, tiny as they still were by more modern
standards, were too big to get into the tinier ports of olden
times. Trade was becoming concentrated as it developed;
and the larger ports were busily providing better harbours
to meet the expanding need.

Of the processes of production in industry Defoe as a rule
tells his readers little, though there are, as we shall see,
notable exceptions. In general, he is more interested in trade
than in manufacture, in the buying and selling of goods than
in their production. By far his best description of a productive
industry is his famous account of the cloth manufacture in
the West Riding; and even there he is far more concerned to
tell us how the manufacturer gets his wares to market than
how they are actually made. In this, he is the child of his
time. Until the Industrial Revolution, the capitalist trader
overshadowed the manufacturer, and far more fortunes were
made by selling things than by directly undertaking their

INTRODUCTION xiii

production. The "complete English tradesman" by which
he meant what we should now call "merchant" as well as
shopkeeper is the hero of Defoe's story.

Defoe is, indeed, the first great apologist of the English
middle class. The man who appeals to him above all is one
in the middle walk of life, with no frills or nonsense, engaged
in making good by the useful art of trafficking in commodities
of daily use. The small cloth manufacturers whom he describes
in his account of the Yorkshire woollen industry were of this
type. They were not, as some modern commentators seem to
have imagined, simply skilled operatives working in their
own houses under the "Domestic System." They were essen-
tially small masters, capitalists in a small way, organising the
business of production in workshops attached to their houses,
employing weavers and other craftsmen to work for them
in these workshops, as well as gathering the yarn spun for
them by women and children in the surrounding cottages.
Their homes were not labourers' cottages, but substantial, if
small houses, and they were well enough to do to rank in the
middle way of life. They had independent access to the
market, and sold their wares to the merchants on equal terms.
Of such men as these came the capitalists who, in a later
generation, carried through the conversion of the Yorkshire
industry to the factory system and to steam power. But in
Defoe's day they were already small employers, as different
as could be from the ordinary hand-loom weavers of the
Eastern and Western Counties. It is precisely on the score
of this difference that he so carefully describes them. They
were types of the small bourgeoisie which seemed to him the
backbone of England.

Very different is Defoe's account of the cloth industry in
other parts. Sudbury, in Suffolk, an important manufacturing
centre, is remarkable, he tells us, for nothing, "except for
being very populous and very poor." Norwich is full of
operatives working at their looms in the garrets of their
homes: the Western Counties present the familiar contrast
of rich clothiers and poor operatives working under the
"Domestic System." The Yorkshire manufacture is described
because it was the exception, and not the rule. The pushing
small masters of the West Riding had already begun their
successful competition with the old-established domestic
manufactures of East and West. The new employer of the
North was beating the capitalist merchant of the older centres

xiv DEFOE'S TOUR

by the superior economy of a workshop system that was the
direct forerunner of the capitalist factory.

In short, Defoe depicts for us a society well adapted for the
coming of the great changes of the next hundred years. In
the seat of power was a governing class of landowners which had
the foresight to recruit itself steadily out of the uppermost
section of the trading community. Below these was an active,
efficient and rapidly growing small middle class of lesser mer-
chants, traders, shopkeepers and small industrial employers,
full of confidence in itself and in its ability to take advantage
of the rapidly expanding opportunities of amassing riches.
This class consisted largely of Dissenters, and retained some-
thing of the Puritan tradition, especially in the intense in-
dividualism of its business outlook. It did not aspire to
gentility, or to play a part in the exercise of political power;
but it did mean to have freedom to develop its affairs in its
own way, and it did mean to insist that the classes above
it, linked to it in interest through the greater merchants and
financiers, should govern in accordance with its desires. Defoe,
himself a Dissenter and a political protagonist of the Dissenting
interest, with direct experience as both trader and manufac-
turer he had kept shop as a hosier and managed a tile
factory represents faithfully the political and economic out-
look of this class. It is the class which a hundred years later
took charge of the new force of steam, and formed the back-
bone of the middle-class demand for Radical Reform.

The England of 1724 is, then, very far from being adequately
summed up as an agricultural country. Still, indeed, it fed
itself; and agriculture was by far its most important means
of life. But a large part of the population lived by trade and
manufactures; and overseas commerce already counted for a
great deal in the national life. The fact that by far the most
important industry was the making of woollen goods served
to prevent any sharp division between the agricultural and
the industrial interest; for the raw material of the woollen
industry was produced at home, and a good demand for
wool sent up the landlords' rents. Hence, there was no such
cleavage as occurred between the agriculturists and the
cotton lords whose raw material came from overseas over
the Corn Laws a century later. And the extent of industriali-
sation was further concealed by the prevalence in certain
industries of the "Domestic System," which left many in-
dustrial workers scattered over the countryside, and still in

INTRODUCTION xv

close touch -with the land. Many households in the eighteenth
century subsisted partly by agriculture and partly on the
proceeds of industrial work.

Inevitably, Defoe's Tour suggests a comparison with certain
later books not, indeed, with the picturesque tourists who
were thick as flies as the eighteenth century advanced, but
with Arthur Young and, above all, with Cobbett. Both Young
and Cobbett were, however, interested mainly in the country-
side, whereas Defoe hurries over the country to the nearest
town or manufacturing village, pausing only to note here a
picturesque beauty that must be recorded for guide-book
reasons, and there a successful adoption in agriculture of
commercial method, which interests him for its own sake.
Cobbett and Young were essentially countrymen; but it is
difficult to visualise Defoe except in a town. There is also
this difference. Young and Cobbett both certainly went over
every inch of the ground they described. Did Defoe? In all
probability he did not. His book does not pretend to be a
record of an actual journey, but a compilation of memories
of journeys made over a considerable number of years. He
probably describes some places which he never visited at all,
and many others visited long before he wrote. But, even if
he sometimes merely "cribbed" from previous guide-books,
there is no doubt of the essential first-handness of his picture
taken as a whole. He was for years employed by the Govern-
ment as a sort of confidential agent, to spy out the land, and
report the state of opinion in all parts of the country. In this
capacity and in others, he journeyed fax and wide, and un-
doubtedly visited most of the areas which he describes, many
of them on a number of separate occasions. Of course, every-
one knows him for one of the world's greatest liars, with a
peculiar art for making fictitious narrative sound like truth
as in the Journal of the Plague Year, the Memoirs of a
Cavalier, and many others of his books. He would have been
able, doubtless, to write a most plausible description of the
Whole Island of Great Britain without ever stirring out of
his lodgings in London. But in fact, we know, he did stir out
of them a great deal; and for the most part, in his Tour, he
did not need to draw on his faculty of invention, because he
really knew the facts. It should be added that economic
information is the one sort of information that Defoe seldom
or never invents. He knew too much about it, and it interested
too much, to make it a suitable subject for promiscuous

xvi DEFOE'S TOUR

lying. The reader need not suspect, because he finds out
Defoe in a dozen antiquarian inaccuracies, that his facts
about his own day and its business doings are equally un-
reliable. On these, where he can be checked from other sources,
he usually comes out right.

It is a remarkable fact that between 1778, when the Ninth
Edition appeared, and 1927, when I edited for Mr. Peter
Davies a large and beautiful reprint of the first edition (I can
say this safely, because the credit for its beauty belongs to
Mr. Davies and not to me), no new issue appeared. The book
was often quoted by historians; but commonly the same few
passages were quoted over and over again. Two small reprints,
each of a single short section, were indeed included by Pro-
fessor Henry Morley in CasselTs National Library; but that
was all. As a guide-book, the Tour, despite frequent botchings,
inevitably went out of date; and meanwhile Defoe's text had
been so overlaid with insertions, and so damaged by omissions
as to lose its original quality. It is here presented as he
wrote it.

The Tour belongs to the last period of Defoe's life, which
is also by far the best of his career as a writer. Between 1719
and 1724, when the first volume appeared, he had published
Robinson Crusoe, Memoirs of a Cavalier, Captain Singleton,
Moll Flanders, A Journal of the Plague Year, Colonel Jacque
and Roxana not to mention a host of -minor writings truly
an astonishing literary output for a period of little over five
years. From 1724 to 1728 he was occupied mainly with the
Tour, the Complete English Tradesman, the Plan of the English
Commerce, and other writings bearing directly on economic
and social questions. He died in 1731, about seventy years old.

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOUR
THROUGH SCOTLAND

DEFOE'S account of his journeys in Scotland is in some ways
the most interesting part of his Tour Through the Whole Island
of Great Britain , because it deals -with a little-known region.
The most remote parts of England were sufficiently well
known in the early eighteenth century, but Scotland up till
that time was largely a terra incognita, and was even supposed
by some Europeans to be a separate island. There had, of
course, been earlier travellers in Scotland. In the fourteenth
century Jean Froissart spent six months there, and wrote about
it with picturesque garrulity. In the fifteenth Aeneas Silvius,
later to become Pope, paid it a visit, and left a short account
of the people. Ben Jonson travelled to Scotland in 1618,
pursued by the scoffs of friends who thought him much too
corpulent for such a journey; and a few weeks behind him came
his humble acquaintance, John Taylor the Water-Poet, who
entitled his narrative The Penniless Pilgrimage because he had
undertaken to do the journey on foot like a modern hiker, and
without a coin in his pocket. In 1655 Thomas Tucker was sent
by Cromwell to make a commercial survey, with a view to the
union which the Protector planned but did not live to bring
about; and around the end of the century intelligent accounts
of the country were published by two clergymen, James Brome
and Thomas Morer, the latter being chaplain to a Scottish
regiment.

The unique value of Defoe's work is due partly to the very
important political developments of his time, partly to his
own exceptional gifts and opportunities. As A Journey Through
Scotland the work was first published in 1723, just sixteen years
after the Union of the Parliaments of England and Scotland,
and it embodies the results of investigations carried out during
years that were among the most eventful in the history of
Great Britain. Although the two kingdoms had been united a

xviii DEFOE'S TOUR

century earlier, when James VI of Scotland became also James I
of England, the relation between them was still one of mutual
suspicion, and there was no certainty that even the union of
the Crowns would continue when the Stuart line came to an
end. The Scots blamed the English for the Darien fiasco, and
resented being debarred from English trading privileges, while
the English were always on the watch for a revival of the old
alliance between Scots and French. The Union was not popular
in Scotland, where there was general apprehension that the
smaller country would be absorbed in the larger one and its
interests neglected. Both before and after the Act was passed
in 1707 it was felt by many Scots that they had the worst of the
bargain. The Treaty was at best a matter of practical expedi-
ence, with England trading commercial advantages for political
safeguards.

In this most critical period Defoe played a dual role. He was
sent to Edinburgh in 1706 as an agent of the English Govern-
ment to find out the temper of the Scottish people and collect
information useful for the direction of English policy; and at
the same time he was to use his influence to persuade the
Scottish public that the Union would be to their advantage.
All this he was to do in the guise of a private individual, care-
fully concealing the fact that he was an ofl&cial emissary of the
English Secretary of State, Defoe adopted various "cover
stories," posing now as a trader, now as a moneyed Englishman
planning to invest in Scottish enterprises, while he was in
reality a sort of combined propagandist and secret service
agent. But it would be quite unfair to picture him as a spy in a
hostile country. He had carried out the same task of gathering
information in England, and he himself was quite sincerely
convinced that the Union was in Scotland's best interests. It is
because of his genuine sympathy with the Scots that his account
of the country and people is so valuable.

In his own introduction to the narrative of the tour Defoe
sets out his aims with admirable frankness. He promises to
give a true picture of the Scots of his time, without either
prejudice or flattery, giving the people due praise when they
merit it, but not glossing over those failings that show them to
lag behind the English in progress. Defoe was in fact extremely
fair minded, and was as much alive to the defects of his own
countrymen as to the good qualities of other nations. To the
former he had borne witness in his lampoon The True-born
Englishman, which pokes fun, somewhat in the manner of

INTRODUCTION TO SCOTLAND xix

W. S. Gilbert, at English complacency; and in 1706, the year
before the Union, he published Caledonia, a poetic tribute to
Scotland and its people. It is not a good poem; it is tedious and
rambling, and weighed down with a profusion of elaborate
footnotes to explain its classical and historical allusions. But it
is complimentary throughout, and represents a sincere effort
to propound a solution, through better methods and manage-
ment, for Scotland's problem of poverty. Its main message is
crystallised in the lines :

Thus blest -with art, enriched with heads and hands,
Producing seas, and more productive lands;
The climate sound, the people prompt and strong,
Why is her happiness delayed so long?

For the part of inquiring traveller Defoe was ideally fitted.
The fame and popularity of Robinson Crusoe has led him to be
styled the father of the novel. But he was in an even truer sense
the father of journalism. He had all the qualities of the success-
ful journalist power of close observation, facility in clear and
vivid description, fluency in argumentative writing, and an
unflagging energy which enabled him to pursue his objective
through the most arduous obstacles and under the most
difficult conditions. Above all, he had the gift of forming useful
contacts and getting people to talk about themselves and their
affairs. In one respect, however, he had the defects of his age;
he had no appreciation of nature in her wilder aspects. The
grandeur of Scottish scenery was wasted on him, even as it was
half a century later on Dr Johnson, who regarded a towering
peak as merely "a considerable protuberance." It was not
until Walter Scott's time that the magnificence of Scottish
mountain and loch began to be appreciated by the visiting
tourist. The eighteenth century liked its landscape tamed and
planned.

The actual itinerary of the tour must not be taken too
literally, for Defoe was drawing on information obtained in the
course of several visits, and indeed it is obvious at times that
he had to go back on his tracks to describe alternative routes.
Much of bis space is given up to noting the houses and estates
of the Scottish nobility, to whom he pays the compliment:
"None in Europe better deserve the name of gentlemen."
He praises the magnificence of such seats as Hamilton Palace
and Drumlanrig, and when writing of Dunfermline observes
that "the kings of Scotland had more fine palaces than most
princes in Europe." Among the towns his first tribute is of

xx DEFOE'S TOUR

course to Edinburgh, and he declares that its High Street " is
perhaps the largest, longest, and finest street, for buildings and
number of inhabitants, not in Britain only, but in the world."
Its reputation for dirtiness he attributes to "the scarcity of
convenient water and the crowded nature of the city." Glasgow,
on the other hand, he considers " the cleanest and beautifullest
and best built city in Britain, London excepted."

With the Scottish people in general, with their deep religious
feelings, Defoe was the more readily in sympathy because he
was himself a Dissenter, and had been educated for the Presby-
terian -ministry and pilloried for his religious pamphlets. In
Scotland he attended an open-air congregation where the
preacher went on for seven hours with a half-hour break for
refreshments. He commends the Scots' strict observance of the
Sabbath, and is at pains to point out that in Scotland it is
the Episcopalians who must be styled Dissenters. He also pays
tribute to Scottish hospitality. After his survey of the Lowlands
he had some misgivings about travelling in the Highlands,
where clan feuds and general lawlessness were not uncommon,
but "cheerfully passed the Tay, trusting very much to that
natural known civility which the Scots, in the remote parts,
always show to strangers." More than once he speaks of the
bravery of Scottish soldiers, and when commenting on then-
defeat at Dunbar he declares: "We must always blush when we
pretend to say the Scots ever wanted courage in the field, let
the cause, or the time, or the government be what, when, and
how they will."

Throughout the work Defoe is extremely matter-of-fact and
sensible. He gives practical suggestions about farming and
forestry, in both of which Scottish methods were old-fashioned
and inefficient. He recommends the cutting of a canal from the
Forth to the Clyde. Above all, he is fully alive to the problems
and results of the Union, of which, indeed, he published a
valuable history in 1709. He foresees at once the tremendous
benefit that will accrue to Glasgow from unrestricted trade
with the American colonies. Glasgow being in the west is at a
great advantage over southern English ports, because its ships
"are oftentimes at the capes of Virginia before the London
ships get clear of the Channel," and can save as much as a
month on the round voyage. He foreshadows the tobacco trade
which made Glasgow's "tobacco lords" of later decades so
famous. Scottish wool trade, he admits, suffers from competi-
tion with the English product, of whose supreme economic

INTRODUCTION TO SCOTLAND xxi

importance in those days the Woolsack in the House of Lords
still reminds us. But there is no reason, he argues, why Scottish
methods should not be improved so that Scottish wool could
command wider markets. Other benefits of the Union are
obvious. The danger of crippling and expensive wars will be
averted, and the burden of defence will fall on England, while
taxes will be lighter and overseas trade more profitable. It is
a well-reasoned and well-informed review of the most con-
troversial issue of the time.

D. C. BROWNING.
1962.

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

1691 : A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue (verse).

1697: Character of Dr Samuel Annesley (verse).

1698 : An Essay upon Projects; An Enquiry into the Occasional Conformity of

Dissenters.

1700 : The Pacificator (verse) ; The Two Great Questions Considered.
1701 : The True-born Englishman (verse) ; Legioris Memorial to the House of

Commons.
1702: The Mock Mourners (verse); Reformation of Manners (verse); A New

Test of the Church of England? s Loyalty; The Shortest Way with the

Dissenters.
1703: Ode to the Athenian Society (verse); An Enquiry into As gill's General

Translation; More Reformation (verse) ; A Hymn to the Pillory.
1704: The Storm; A Layman's Sermon on the Late Storm; An Elegy on the

Author of the True-born Englishman; A Hymn to Victory; Giving Alms no

Charity.
1705: The Consolidator or Memoirs of Sundry Transactions from the World

in the Moon; The Experiment or The Shortest Way with the Dissenters

Exemplified; The Double Welcome (verse) ; The Dyet of Poland (verse).
1706 : A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs Veal; A Sermon on the

Filling-up ofDr Burgess's Meeting-house; Jure Divino (verse) ; Caledonia

(verse).

1709 : History of the Union of Great Britain.
1710: An Essay on Public Credit; An Essay upon Loans.
1712 : The Present State of Parties in Great Britain.
1713 : A General History of Trade.
1715 : A n Appeal to Honour and Justice; The Family Instructor; History of

the Wars of Charles XII; A Hymn to the Mob.
1717: Memoirs of the Church of Scotland; The Life and Death of Count

Patkul.
1718 : Memoirs of the Duke of Shrewsbury; Memoirs of Daniel Williams; The

Family Instructor, part ii.
1719: The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of

York, Mariner; The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; The Dumb

Philosopher or Great Britain's Wonder (Dickory Cronke); The King of

Pirates (Captain Avery) ; Life of Baron de Goertz.
1720: The Life and Adventures of Duncan Campbell; Memoirs of a Cavalier;

The Life, Adventures, and Piracies of the Famous Captavn Singleton;

Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprising Adventures of Robinson

Crusoe; The Supernatural Philosopher or The Mysteries ofMagick; Trans-
lation of du Fresnoy's Compleat Art of Painting (verse).
1722: The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders; A Journal of the

Plague Year; Due Preparations for the Plague; The Life of Dominique

Cartouche; The History of Colonel Jacque; Religious Courtship.
1723: The Highland Rogue (Rob Roy); History of Peter the Great.

xxiii

xxiv DEFOE'S TOUR

1724: The Fortunate Mistress (Roxana); Life of John Sheppard; The Rob-
beries, Escapes , etc., of John Sheppard; The Great Law of Subordination
or The Insolence and Unsufferabte Behaviour of Servants in England; A
Tour Thro* the Whole Island of Great Britain, 3 vols. (1724-6).

1725: A New Voyage round the World; Account of Jonathan Wild; Account
of John Gow; Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business (on servants);
The Complete English Tradesman, part i.

1726: The Friendly Demon; Mere Nature Delineated (Peter the Wild Boy);
The Political History of the Devil; An Essay upon Literature; A System of
Magic; The Protestant Monastery; The History of Discoveries (1726-7)

1727: Parochial Tyranny; Conjugal Lewdness, and with new title, A
Treatise on the Use and Abuse of the Marriage Bed; The Complete English
tradesman, part ii; A New Family Instructor; History and Reality of
Apparitions, and with new title (1728), The Secrets of the Invisible World
Disclosed.

1728: A New Family Instructor; Augusta Triumphans or The Way to make
London the most Flourishing City in the Universe; A Plan of the English
Commerce; Second Thoughts are Best (on street robberies) ; Street Robberies
Considered.

1729: A Humble Proposal to the People of England for the Increase of Trade,
etc. ; Preface to R. Dodsley's poem Servitude.

1731: An Efficient Scheme for preventing Street Robberies.

Besides the above-mentioned publications a large number of further
tracts on politics, church matters, etc., are extant. Of Defoe's journalistic
enterprises the most important was the Review, which he conducted from
1704 to 1713, writing nearly all of it himself.

The best collected edition of Defoe's works is the Novels and Selected
Writings, published at Oxford, 19*27-8, in fourteen volumes.

BIOGRAPHY. Life of Defoe, by George Chalmers, 1785; Memories of the Life
and Times of Daniel Defoe, by Walter Wilson, 3 vols., 1830 ; Life and Times
of Daniel Defoe, by WiUian Chadwick, 1859; Daniel Defoe: his Life and
recently discovered Writings t by William Lee, 1869; Defoe (English Men of
Letters), by William Minto, 1879; Life of Daniel Defoe, by Thomas Wright,
1894; Daniel Defoe: how to know him, by W. P. Trent, 1916; Defoe et ses
romans, by Paul Dottin, 1924; Defoe, by James Sutherland, 1937; The
Incredible Defoe, by William Freeman, 1950; Daniel Defoe, a Study in
Conflict, by Brian Fitzgerald, 1954; Daniel Defoe, a Citizen of the Modern
World, by J. R. Moore, 1958.

CONTENTS

VOLUME ONE

PAGE

PREFATORY NOTE ..... v

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOUR THROUGH ENGLAND AND WALES by

G. D. H. Cole vil

INTRODUCTION TO THE TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND by D. C. Browning xvii

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL

EDITION .....- z

LETTER

I. CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF THE
COUNTIES OF ESSEX, SUFFOLK, NORFOLK, ETC., AS ALSO OF

PART OF CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE 5

APPENDIX TO LETTER I 9 2

II. CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF KENT,

SUSSEX, HAMPSHIRE, AND OF PART OF SURREY ... 94

III. CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTH COASTS OF HAMP-
SHIRE, WILTS, DORSETSHIRE, SOMERSETSHIRE, DEVONSHIRE,
AND CORNWALL . . - - - .172
APPENDIX TO LETTER III .....- 243
ADDENDA TO THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION . 249
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND VOLUME OF THE SAME . 251

LETTER

IV. CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTH SHORE OF THE
COUNTIES OF CORNWALL, AND DEVON, AND SOME PARTS OF
SOMERSETSHIRE, WILTSHIRE, DORSETSHIRE, GLOUCESTER-
SHIRE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE, AND BERKSHIRE . . . 254

V. CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON, AS

TAKING IN THE ClTY OF WESTMINSTER, BOROUGH OF SOUTH-
WARK, AND THE BUILDINGS CIRCUMJACENT . . .314

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO
THE FIRST VOLUME

IF this work is not both pleasant and profitable to the reader,
the author most freely and openly declares the fault must be in
his performance, and it cannot be any deficiency in the subject.

As the work it self is a description of the most flourishing and
opulent country in the world, so there is a flowing variety of
materials; all the particulars are fruitful of instructing and
diverting objects.

If novelty pleases, here is the present state of the country
describ'd, the improvement, as well in culture, as in commerce,
the encrease of people, and employment for them: Also here
you have an account of the encrease of buildings, as well in
great cities and towns, as in the new seats and dwellings of
the nobility and gentry; also the encrease of wealth, in many
eminent particulars.

If antiquity takes with you, tho' the looking back into remote
things is studiously avoided, yet it is not wholly omitted, nor
any useful observations neglected; the learned writers on the
subject of antiquity in Great Britain have so well discharged
themselves, that we can never over-value their labours, yet
there are daily farther discoveries made, which give future ages,
room, perhaps not to mend, yet at least to add to what has
been already done.

In travelling thro' England, a luxuriance of objects presents
it self to our view: Where-ever we come, and which way soever
we look, we see something new, something significant, some-
thing well worth the travellers stay, and the writer's care; nor
is any check to our design, or obstruction to its acceptance in
the world, to say the like has been done already, or to pane-
gyrick upon the labours and value of those authors who have
gone before, in this work: A compleat account of Great Britain
will be the work of many years, I might say ages, and may
employ many hands: Whoever has travelled Great Britain

i

2 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE

before us, and whatever they have written, tho* they may
have had a harvest, yet they have always, either by necessity,
ignorance or negligence pass'd over so much, that others may
come and glean after them by large handfuls.

Nor cou'd it be otherwise, had the diligence and capacities
of all who have gone before been greater than they are; for the
face of things so often alters, and the situation of affairs in
this great British Empire gives such new turns, even to nature
it self, that there is matter of new observation every day
presented to the traveller's eye.

The fate of things gives a new face to things, produces changes
hi low life, and innumerable incidents; plants and supplants
families, raises and sinks towns, removes manufactures, and
trades; great towns decay, and small towns rise; new towns,
new palaces, new seats are built every day; great rivers and good
harbours dry up, and grow useless; again, new ports are open'd,
brooks are made rivers, small rivers navigable, ports and
harbours are made where none were before, and the like.

Several towns, which antiquity speaks of as considerable, are
now lost and swallow'd up by the sea, as Dunwich in Suffolk
for one; and others, which antiquity knew nothing of, are now
grown considerable: In a word, new matter offers to new
observation, and they who write next, may perhaps find as
much room for enlarging upon us, as we do upon those that
have gone before.

The author says, that indeed he might have given his pen a
loose here, to have complained how much the conduct of the
people diminishes the reputation of the island, on many modern
occasions, and so we could have made his historical account a
satyr upon the country, as well as upon the people; but they
are ill friends to England, who strive to write a history of her
nudities, and expose, much less recommend her wicked part
to posterity; he has rather endeavour' d to do her justice in
those things which recommend her, and humbly to move a
reformation of those, which he thinks do not; In this he thinks
he shall best pay the debt of a just and native writer, who, in
regard to the reader, should conceal nothing which ought to^be
known, and in regard to his country, expose nothing which
ought to be conceal'd.

A description of the country is the business here, not dis-
canting upon the errors of the people; and yet, without boasting,
we may venture to say, we are at least upon a level with the
best of our neighbours, perhaps above them in morals, what-

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE 3

ever we are in their pride; but let that stand as it does, till
times mend; 'tis not, I say, the present business.

The observations here made, as they principally regard the
present state of things, so, as near as can be, they are adapted
to the present taste of the times: The situation of things is
given not as they have been, but as they are; the improvements
in the soil, the product of the earth, the labour of the poor,
the improvement in manufactures, in merchandizes, in navi-
gation, all respects the present time, not the time past.

In every county something of the people is said, as well as
of the place, of their customs, speech, employments, the product
of their labour, and the manner of their living, the circumstances
as well as situation of the towns, their trade and government;
of the rarities of art, or nature; the rivers, of the inland, and
river navigation; also of the lakes and medicinal springs, not
forgetting the general dependance of the whole country upon
the city of London, as well for the consumption of its produce,
as the circulation of its trade.

The preparations for this work have been suitable to the
author's earnest concern for its usefulness; seventeen very
large circuits, or journeys have been taken thro* divers parts
separately, and three general tours over almost the whole
English part of the island; in all which the author has not
been wanting to treasure up just remarks upon particular
places and things, so that he is very little in debt to other mens
labours, and gives but very few accounts of things, but what
he has been an eye-witness of himself.

Besides these several journeys in England, he has also lived
some time in Scotland, and has travelTd critically over great
part of it; he has viewed the north part of England, and the
south part of Scotland five several times over; all which is
hinted here, to let the readers know what reason they will
have to be satisfy'd with the authority of the relation, and that
the accounts here given are not the produce of a cursory view,
or rais'd upon the borrow'd lights of other observers.

It must be acknowledged, that some foreigners, who have
pretended to travel into England, and to give account of things
when they come home, have treated us after a very indifferent
manner: As they viewed us with envy, so they have made their
account rather equal to what they wish'd we should be, than
to what we are; and wrote as if they were afraid the country
they wrote to should be in love with us, and come away to live
among us: In short, speaking of England, they have, like the

4 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE

Israelitish spies, carried abroad a very ill report of the land:
Seignior Gratiano a Spaniard, is one of those; he has given such
a scandalous account of England in Spanish, as made a wiser
man than himself, say, That if the history of England written
by Augustin Gratiano had been written in the days of Philip II.
and he had believ'd it to be true, he would never have thought
it worth his while to fit out such an Armada for the conquest
of it; but that it appeared by King Philip's making that unfor-
tunate attempt, that he was certainly better acquainted with
it, than Gratiano.

It is worth no man's while to examine and confute foreign
authors, whose errors are their ignorance. Our business is to
give just ideas of our country to our readers, by which foreigners
may be rightly inform'd, if they please to judge impartially; if
any man will not be inform'd, we must write on that blindness,
let him be ignorant.

But after all that has been said by others, or can be said here,
no description of Great Britain can be, what we call a finished
account, as no cloaths can be made to fit a growing child; no
picture carry the likeness of a living face; the size of one, and
the countenance of the other always altering with time: so no
account of a kingdom thus daily altering its countenance, can
be perfect.

Even while the sheets are in the press, new beauties appear
in several places, and almost to every part we are oblig'd to add
appendixes, and supplemental accounts of fine houses, new
undertakings, buildings, &c. and thus posterity will be con-
tinually adding; every age will find an encrease of glory. And
may it do so, tiU Great Britain as much exceeds the finest country
in Europe, as that country now fancies they exceed her.

A TOUR

IN CIRCUITS, THROUGH
THE ISLAND OF GREAT BRITAIN

LETTER I

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF THE COUNTIES
OF ESSEX, SUFFOLK, NORFOLK, ETC., AS ALSO OF PART OF
CAMBRIDGE-SHIRE

I BEGAN my travels, where I purpose to end them, viz. at the
city of London, and therefore my account of the city itself
will come last, that is to say, at the latter end of my southern
progress; and as in the course of this journey I shall have
many occasions to call it a circuit, if not a circle, so I chose
to give it the title of circuits, in the plural, because I do not
pretend to have travelled it all in one journey, but in many,
and some of them many times over; the better to inform my
self of every thing I could find worth taking notice of.

I hope it will appear that I am not the less, but the more
capable of giving a full account of things, by how much the
more deliberation I have taken in the view of them, and by
how much the oftner I have had opportunity to see them.

I set out, the 3d of April, 1722, going first eastward, and took
what I think, I may very honestly call a circuit in the very
letter of it; for I went down by the coast of the Thames thro'
the marshes or hundreds, on the south-side of the county of
Essex, till I came to Maiden, Colchester, and Harwich, thence
continuing on the coast of Suffolk to Yarmouth; thence round
Oy the edge of the sea, on the north and west-side of Norfolk,
to Lynn, Wisbich, and the Wash; thence back again on the
north-side of Suffolk and Essex, to the west^ ending it in
Middlesex, near the place where I began it, reserving the middle
or center of the several counties to some little excursions, which
I made by themselves.

Passing Bow-Bridge, where the county of Essex begins, the

5

6 DEFOE'S TOUR

first observation I made was, That all the villages which may
be called the neighbourhood of the city of London on this,
as well as on the other sides thereof, which I shall speak to in
their order; I say, all those villages are increased in buildings
to a strange degree, within the compass of about 20 or 30
years past at the most.

The village of Stratford, the first in this county from London,
is not only increased, but, I believe, more than doubled in that
time; every vacancy filled up with new houses, and two little
towns or hamlets, as they may be called, on the forest side of
the town, entirely new, namely, Mary-land-Point, and the
Gravel-Pits, one facing the road to Woodford, and Epping,
and the other facing the road to Hlford: And as for the hither
part, it is almost joined to Bow, in spite of rivers, canals,
marshy-grounds, &c. Nor is this increase of building the case
only, in this and all the other villages round London; but the
increase of the value and rent of the houses formerly standing,
has, in that compass of years above-mentioned, advanced to
a very great degree, and I may venture to say at least a fifth
part; some think a third part, above what they were before.

This is indeed most visible, speaking of Stratford in Essex;
but it is the same thing in proportion in other villages adjacent,
especially on the forest-side; as at Low-Layton, Layt on-stone,
Walthamstow, Woodford, Wansted, and the towns of West-
Ham, Plaistow, Upton, &c. In all which places, or near them,
(as the inhabitants say) above a thousand new foundations
have been erected, besides old houses repaired, all since the
Revolution: And this is not to be forgotten too, that this
increase is, generally speaking, of handsom large houses, from
2oZ. a year to 6oZ. very few under aoZ. a year; being chiefly for
the habitations of the richest citizens, such as either are able
to keep two houses, one in the country, and one in the city;
or for such citizens as being rich, and having left off trade, live
altogether in these neighbouring villages, for the pleasure and
health of the latter part of their days.

The truth of this may at least appear, in that they tell me
there are no less than two hundred coaches kept by the
inhabitants within the circumference of these few villages
named above, besides such as are kept by accidental lodgers.

This increase of the inhabitants, and the cause of it, I shall
inlarge upon when I come to speak of the like in the counties
of Middlesex, Surrey, &c. Where it is the same, only in a much
.greater degree: But this I must take notice of here, that this

ESSEX 7

increase causes those villages to be much pleasanter and more
sociable than formerly, for now people go to them, not for
retirement into the country, but for good company; of which,
that I may speak to the ladies as well as other authors do,
there are in these villages, nay, in all, three or four excepted,
excellent conversation, and a great deal of it, and that without
the mixture of assemblies, gaming houses, and publick foun-
dations of vice and debauchery; and particularly I find none
of those incentives kept up on this side the country.

Mr. Camden, and his learned continuatpr, Bishop Gibson,
have ransacked this country for its antiquities, and have left
little unsearched; and, as it is not my present design to say
much of what has been said already, I shall touch very lightly
where two such excellent antiquaries have gone before me;
except it be to add what may have been since discovered,
which as to these parts is only this; That there seems to be
lately found out, in the bottom of the marshes, (generally
called Hackney-Marsh, and beginning near about the place
now called the Wyck), between Old-Ford and the said Wyck,
the remains of a great stone causeway, which, as it is supposed,
was the highway, or great road from London into Essex, and
the same, which goes now over the great bridge between Bow
and Stratford.

That the great road lay this way, and that the great causeway
landed again just over the river, where now the Temple-Mills
stand, and passed by Sir Tho. Hickes's house at Ruckolls, all
this is not doubted; and that it was one of those famous high-
ways made by the Romans, there is undoubted proof, by the
several marks of Roman work, and by Roman coins, and other
antiquities found there, some of which are said to be deposited
hi the hands of the Revd. Mr. Strype, vicar of the parish of
Low-Layton.

From hence the great road passed up to Layton-stone, a
place by some known, now as much, by the sign of the Green-
Man, formerly a lodge upon the edge of the forest; and crossing
by Wansted House, formerly the dwelling of Sir Josiah Child,
now of his son the Lord Castlemain, (of which, hereafter) went
over the same river which we now pass at Ilford; and passing
that part of the great forest which we now call Henault Forest,
came into that which is now the great road, a little on this
side the Whalebone, a place on the road so called, because a
rib-bone of a great whale, which was taken in the river of
Thames the same year that Oliver Cromwel died, 1658, was

8 DEFOE'S TOUR

fixed there for a monument of that monstrous creature, it being
at first about eight-and twenty foot long.

According to my first intention of effectually viewing the
sea-coast of these three counties, I went from Stratford to
Barking, a large market-town, but chiefly inhabited by fisher-
men, whose smacks ride in the Thames, at the mouth of their
river, from whence their fish is sent up to London to the market
at Billingsgate, by small boats, of which I shall speak by itself
in my description of London.

One thing I cannot omit in the mention of these Barking
fisher-smacks, viz. That one of those fishermen, a very sub-
stantial and experienced man, convinced me, that all the
pretences to bringing fish alive to London market from the
North Seas, and other remote places on the coast of Great
Britain, by the new-built sloops called fish-pools, have not
been able to do any thing, but what their fishing-smacks are
able on the same occasion to perform. These fishing-smacks
are very useful vessels to the publick upon many occasions;
as particularly, in time of war they are used as press-smacks,
running to all the northern and western coasts to pick up
seamen to mann the navy, when any expedition is at hand
that requires a sudden equipment: At other times, being
excellent sailors, they are tenders to particular men of war;
and on an expedition they have been made use of as machines,
for the blowing up fortified ports and havens; as at Calais,
St. Maloes, and other places.

This parish of Barking is very large; and by the improvement
of lands taken in, out of the Thames, and out of the river which
runs by the town, the tithes, as the townsmen assured me, are
worth above 6ooZ. per annum, including small tithes. Note, This
parish has two or three chapels of ease, viz. one at Ilford, and
one on the side of Henault Forest, called New Chapel.

Sir Tho. Fanshaw, of an antient Roman Catholick family,
has a very good estate in this parish: A little beyond the town,
on the road to Dagenham, stood a great house, antient, and
now almost fallen down, where tradition says the Gunpowder
Treason Plot was at first contriv'd, and that all the first con-
sultations about it were held there.

This side of the county is rather rich in land, than in inhabi-
tants, occasioned chiefly by the unhealthiness of the air; for
these low marsh grounds, which, with all the south-side of the
county, have been saved out of the River Thames, and out of
the sea, where the river is wide enough to be call'd so, begin

ESSEX 9

here, or rather begin at West-Ham, by Stratford, and continue
to extend themselves. From hence eastward, growing wider and
wider, till we come beyond Tilbury, when the flat country lyes
six, seven, or eight miles broad, and is justly said to be both
unhealthy, and unpleasant.

However the lands are rich, and, as is observable, it is very
good fanning in the marshes, because the landlords let good
penny-worths, for it being a place where every body cannot
live, those that venture it, will have encouragement, and indeed
it is but reasonable they should.

Several little observations I made in this part of the county
of Essex.

1. We saw passing from Barking to Dagenham, The famous
breach, made by an inundation of the Thames, which was so
great, as that it laid near 5000 acres of land under water, but
which after near ten years lying under water, and being several
times blown up has been at last effectually stopped by the
application of Captain Perry; the gentleman, who for several
year, had been employed, in the CSar of Muscovy's works, at
Veronitza, on the River Don. This breach appeared now
effectually made up, and they assured us, that the new work,
where the breach was, is by much esteemed the strongest of
all the sea walls in that level.

2. It was observable that great part of the lands in these
levels, especially those on this side East Tilbury, are held by
the farmers, cow-keepers, and grasing butchers who live in
and near London, and that they are generally stocked (all the
winter half year) with large fat sheep, (viz.) Lincolnshire and
Leicestershire wethers, which they buy in Smithfield in Sep-
tember and October, when the Lincolnshire and Leicestershire
grasiers sell off their stock, and are kept here till Christmas,
or Candlemas, or thereabouts, and tho* they are not made at
all fatter here, than they were when bought in, yet the farmer,
or butcher finds very good advantage in it, by the difference
of the price of mutton between Michaelmas, when 'tis cheapest,
and Candlemas when 'tis dearest; this is what the butchers
value themselves upon, then they tell us at the market, that
it is right marsh-mutton.

3. In the bottom of these marshes, and close to the edge of
the rivers stands the strong fortress of Tilbury, called Tilbury
Fort, which may justly be looked upon, as the key of the river
of Thames, and consequently the key of the city of London:

io DEFOE'S TOUR

It is a regular fortification, the design of it, was a pentagon,
but the water bastion as it would have been calPd, was never
built; the plan was laid out by Sir Martin Beckman, chief
engineer to King Charles II. who also designed the works at
Sheerness. The esplanade of the fort is very large, and the
bastions, the largest of any in England, the foundation is
laid so deep, and piles under that, driven down two on end
of one another, so far, till they were assur'd they were below
the channel of the river, and that the piles, which were shod
with iron, entered into the solid chalk rock adjoyning to, or
reaching from the chalk-hills on the other side. These bastions
settled considerably at first, as did also part of the curtain, the
great quantity of earth that was brought to fill them up,
necessarily, requiring to be made solid by time; but they are
now firm as the rocks of chalk which they came from, and the
filling up one of these bastions, as I have been told by good
hands, cost the Government 6oooZ. being filled with chalk-
rubbish fetched from the chalk-pits at North-Fleet, just above
Gravesend.

The works to the land side are compleat; the bastions are
faced with brick. There is a double ditch, or moat, the inner-
most part of which is 180 foot broad, there is a good counter-
scarp, and a covered way marked out, with ravelins, and
tenailles, but they are not raised a second time after their
first settling.

On the land side there are also two small redoubts of brick,
but of very little strength, for the chief strength of this fort
on the land side consists in this, that they are able to lay the
whole level under water, and so to make it impossible for an
enemy to make any approaches to the fort that way.

On the side next the river, there is a very strong curtain,
with a noble gate called the water-gate in the middle, and that
ditch is pallisadoed. At the place where the water-bastion
was designed to be built, and which by the plan should run
wholly out into the river, so to flank the two curtains on each
side; I say, in the place where it should have been, stands a
high tower, which they tell us was built in Queen Elizabeth's
time, and was called the Block-house; the side next the water
is vacant.

Before this curtain above and below the said vacancy, is
a platform in the place of a counterscarp, on which are planted

ESSEX ii

1 06 pieces of cannon, generally all of them carrying from 24
to 46 pound ball; a battery, so terrible, as well imports the
consequence of that place: Besides which, there are smaller
pieces planted between, and the bastions and curtain also are
planted with guns, so that they must be bold fellows who will
venture in the biggest ships the world has heard of, to pass
such a battery, if the men appointed to serve the guns, do
their duty like stout fellows, as becomes them.

The present government of this important place is under
the prudent administration of the Right Honourable the
Lord Newbrugh.

From hence, there is nothing for many miles together remark-
able, but a continued level of unhealthy marshes, called, the
Three Hundreds, till we come before Leigh, and to the mouth
of the River Chelmer, and Black-water. These rivers united
make a large firth, or inlet of the sea, which by Mr. Camden
is called Idumanum Fluvium; but by our fishermen and seamen,
who use it as a port, 'tis called Maiden-Water.

In this inlet of the sea is Osey or Osyth Island, commonly
called Oosy Island, so well known by our London men of
pleasure, for the infinite number of wild-fowl, that is to say,
duck, mallard, teal and widgeon, of which there are such vast
flights, that they tell us the isknd, namely the creek, seems
covered with them, at certain times of the year, and they go
from London on purpose for the pleasure of shooting; and
indeed often come home very well loaden with game. But it
must be remembred too, that those gentlemen who are such
lovers of the sport, and go so far for it, often return with an
Essex ague on their backs, which they find a heavier load
than the fowls they have shot.

'Tis on this shoar, and near this creek, that the greatest
quantity of fresh fish is caught, which supplies not this country
only, but London markets also: On the shpar beginning a little
below Candy Island, or rather below Leigh Road, there lies
a great shoal or sand called the Black Tayl, which runs out
near three leagues into the sea due east; at the end of it, stands
a pole or mast, set up by the Trinity-House men of London,
whose business is, to lay buoys, and set up sea marks for the
direction of the sailors; this is called Shoo-Bacon, from the
point of land where this sand begins, which is call'd Shooberry-
Ness, and that from the town of Shooberry, which stands by
it. From this sand, and on the edge of Shooberry, before it, or

12 DEFOE'S TOUR

south-west of it, all along, to the mouth of Colchester Water,
the shoar is full of shoals and sands, with some deep channels
between; all which are so full of fish, that not only the Barking
fishing-smacks come hither to fish, but the whole shoar is full
of small fisher-boats in very great numbers, belonging to the
villages and towns on the coast, who come in every tide with
what they take; and selling the smaller fish in the country, send
the best and largest away upon horses, which go night and day
to London market,

NJB. I am the more particular in my remark on this place,
because in the course of my travels the reader will meet with
the like in almost every place of note through the whole island,
where it will be seen how this whole kingdom, as well the people,
as the land, and even the sea, in every part of it, are employ'd
to furnish something, and I may add, the best of every thing, to
supply the city of London with provisions; I mean by provi-
sions, corn, flesh, fish, butter, cheese, salt, fewel, timber, &c.
and cloths also; with every thing necessary for building, and
furniture for their own use, or for trades; of all which in their
order.

On this shoar also are taken the best and nicest, tho* not the
largest oysters in England; the spot from whence they have
their common appellation is a little bank called Woelfleet,
scarce to be called an island, in the mouth of the River Crouch,
now called Crooksea Water; but the chief place where the said
oysters are now had, is from Wyvenhoo and the shoars adjacent
whither they are brought by the fishermen, who take them at
the mouth of, that they call, Colchester Water, and about the
sand they call the Spits, and carry them up to Wyvenhoo,
where they are laid in beds or pits on the shoar to feed, as
they call it; and then being barrelled up, and carried to Col-
chester, which is but three miles off, they are sent to London
by land, and are, from thence, called Colchester oysters.

The chief sort of other fish which they carry from this part
of the shoar to London, are soals, which they take sometimes
exceeding large, and yield a very good price at London market:
Also sometimes midling turbet, with whitings, codling, and
large flounders; the small fish as above, they sell in the country.

In the several creeks and openings, as above, on this shoar,
there are also other islands, but of no particular note, except
Mersey, which lies in the middle of the two openings, between

ESSEX 13

Maiden Water and Colchester Water; being of the most difficult
access, so that 'tis thought a thousand men well provided,
might keep possession of it against a great force, whether by
land or sea; on this account, and because if possessed by an
enemy, it would shut up all the navigation and fishery on that
side: The Government formerly built a fort on the south-east
point of it: And generally in case of Dutch war, there is a
strong body of troops kept there to defend it.

At this place may be said to end what we call the Hundreds
of Essex; that is to say, the three hundreds or divisions, which
include the marshy country, viz. Barnstaple Hundred, Rochford
Hundred, and Dengy Hundred.

I have one remark more, before I leave this damp part of
the world, and which I cannot omit on the womens account;
namely, that I took notice of a strange decay of the sex here;
insomuch, that all along this county it was very frequent to
meet with men that had had from five or six, to fourteen or
fifteen wives; nay, and some more; and I was informed that
in the marshes on the other side the river over-against Candy
Island, there was a farmer, who was then living with the five
and twentieth wife, and that his son who was but about 35
years old, had already had about fourteen; indeed this part
of the story, I only had by report, tho' from good hands too;
but the other is well known, and easie to be inquired in to,
about Fobbing, Curringham, Thundersly, Benfleet, Prittlewell,
Wakering, Great Stambridge, Cricksea, Burnham, Dengy, and
other towns of the like situation: The reason, as a merry fellow
told me, who said he had had about a dozen and half of wives,
(tho 5 I found afterwards he fibb'd a little) was this; That they
being bred in the marshes themselves, and seasoned to the place,
did pretty well with it; but that they always went up into the
hilly country, or to speak their own language into the uplands
for a wife: That when they took the young lasses out of the
wholesome and fresh air, they were healthy, fresh and clear,
and well; but when they came out of their native air into the
marshes among the fogs and damps, there they presently
chang'd their complexion, got an ague or two, and seldom
held it above half a year, or a year at most; and then, said he,
we go to the uplands again, and fetch another; so that marrying
of wives was reckon'd a kind of good farm to them: It is true,
the fellow told this in a kind of drollery, and mirth; but the
fact, for all that, is certainly true; and that they have abundance
of wives by that very means: Nor is it less true, that the inhabi-

14 DEFOE'S TOUR

tants in these places do not hold it out, as in other countries,
and as first you seldom meet with very antient people among
the poor, as in other places we do, so, take it one with another,
not one half of the inhabitants are natives of the place; but
such as from other countries, or in other parts of this county
settle here for the advantage of good farms; for which I appeal
to any impartial enquiry, having myself examin'd into it
critically in several places.

From the marshes, and low grounds, being not able to travel
without many windings, and indentures, by reason of the
creeks, and waters, I came up to the town of Maiden, a noted
market town situate at the conflux or joyning of two principal
rivers in this county, the Chelm or Chelmer, and the Black-
water, and where they enter into the sea. The channel, as I have
noted, is calTd by the sailors Maiden-Water, and is navigable
up to the town, where, by that means, is a great trade for
carrying corn by water to London; the county of Essex being
(especially on all that side) a great corn country.

When I have said this, I think I have done Maiden justice,
and said all of it that there is to be said, unless I should run
into the old story of its antiquity, and tell you it was a Roman
colony in the time of Vespasian, and that it was calTd Camolo-
dunum. How the Britons under Queen Boadicia, hi revenge
for the Romans ill usage of her, for indeed they used her majesty
ill; they stripped her naked, and whipped her publickly thro 5
their streets for some affront she had given them; I say, how for
this, she rais'd the Britons round the country, overpowered,
and cut in peices the Tenth Legion, killed above eighty thousand
Romans, and destroyed the colony; but was afterwards over-
thrown again in a great battle, and sixty thousand Britons
slain. I say, unless I should enter into this story, I have nothing
more to say of Maiden, and as for that story, it is so fully related
by Mr. Camden, in his history of the Romans in Britain, at the
beginning of his Britannia, that I need only refer the reader to
it, and go on with my journey.

Being obliged to come thus far into the uplands, as above,
I made it my road to pass thro' Witham, a pleasant well
situated market-town, in which, and in its neighbourhood,
there are as many gentlemen of good fortunes, and families,
as I believe can be met with in so narrow a compass in any of
the three counties, of which I make this circuit.

In the town of Witham dwells the Lord Pasely, eldest son
oi the Earl of Abercorne of Ireland, (a branch of the noble

ESSEX 15

family of Hamilton, iii Scotland:) His Lordship has a small,
but a neat well built new house, and is finishing his gardens
in such a manner, as few in that part of England will exceed
them.

Nearer Chelmsford, hard by Boreham, lives the Lord Viscount
Barrington, who tho' not born to the title, or estate, or name
which he now possesses, had the honour to be twice made heir
to the estates of gentlemen, not at all related to him, at least
one of them, as is very much to his honour mention'd in his
patent of creation. His name was Shute, his uncle a linnen
draper in London, and serv'd sheriff of the said city, in very
troublesome times. He chang'd the name of Shute, for that
of Barrington, by an Act of Parliament, obtain'd for that
purpose, and had the dignity of a baron of the kingdom of
Ireland conferr'd on him by the favour of King GEORGE. His
lordship is a Dissenter, and seems to love retirement. He was
a Member of Parliament for the town of Berwick upon Tweed.

On the other side of Witham, at Fauburn, an antient mansion
house, built by the Romans, lives Mr. Bullock, whose father
married the daughter of that eminent citizen, Sir Josiah Child
of Wansted, by whom she had three sons, the eldest enjoys the
estate, which is considerable.

It is observable, that in this part of the country, there are
several very considerable estates purchas'd, and now enjoy'd
by citizens of London, merchants and tradesmen, as Mr. Western
an iron merchant, near Kelvedon, Mr. Cresnor, a wholesale
grocer, who was, a little before he died, nam'd for sheriff at
Earls Coin, Mr. Olemus, a merchant at Braintree, Mr. Westcomb,
near Maiden, Sir Thomas Webster at Copthall, near Waltham,
and several others.

I mention this, to observe how the present encrease of wealth
in the city of London, spreads it self into the country, and plants
families and fortunes, who in another age will equal the families
of the antient gentry, who perhaps were bought out. I shall
take notice of this in a general head, and when I have run thro'
all the counties, collect a list of the families of citizens _and
tradesmen thus established in the several counties, especially
round London.

The product of all this part of the country is corn, as that
of the marshy feeding grounds mention'd above, is grass, where
their chief business is breeding of calves, which I need not say
are the best and fattest, and the largest veal in England, if
not in the world; and as an instance, I eat part of a veal or

* B 820

16 DEFOE'S TOUR

calf, fed by the late Sir Josiah Child at Wansted, the loyn of
which weigh'd above 30?. and the flesh exceeding white and fat.

From hence I went on to Colchester: The story of Kill Dane,
which is told of the town of Kelvedon, three miles from Witham,
namely, That this is the place where the massacre of the Danes
was begun by the women, and that therefore it was call'd Kill-
Dane. I say of it, as we generally say of improbable news, it
wants confirmation. The true name of the town is Kelvedon,
and has been so for many hundred years. Neither does Mr. Cam-
den, or any other writer I meet with worth naming, insist on this
piece of empty tradition, the town is commonly called Keldon.

COLCHESTER is an antient Corporation; the town is large,
very populous; the streets fair and beautiful; and tho* it may
not be said to be finely built, yet there are abundance of very
good and well-built houses in it: It still mourns, in the ruins of
a civil war; during which, or rather after the heat of the war
was over, it suffered a severe siege; which, the garrison making
a resolute defence, was turn'd into a blockade, in which the
garrison and inhabitants also, suffered the utmost extremity
of hunger, and were at last oblig'd to surrender at discretion,
when their two chief officers, Sir Charles Lucas, and Sir George
Lisle, were shot to death under the castle-wall. The inhabitants
had a tradition, that no grass would grow upon the spot where
the blood of those two gallant gentlemen was spilt; and they
shew'd the place bare of grass for many years, but whether for
this reason, I will not affirm; the story is now dropp'd, and the
grass, I suppose, grows there as in other places.

However, the batter'd walls, the breaches in the turrets, and
the ruin'd churches still remain, except that the church of
St. Mary's (where they had the royal fort) is rebuilt; but the
steeple, which was two thirds batter'd down, because the
besieged had a large culverine upon it, that did much execution,
remains still in that condition.

There is another church which bears the marks of those
times, namely, on the south-side of the town, in the way to
the Hithe, of which more hereafter.

The lines of contravallation, with the forts built by the
besiegers, and which surrounded the whole town, remain very
visible in many places; but the chief of them are demolished.

The River Coin, which passes through this town, compasses
it on the north and east-sides, and serv'd in those times for
a compleat defence on those sides. They have three bridges
over it, one called North-Bridge, at the north gate, by which

ESSEX 17

the road leads into Suffolk; one call'd East-Bridge, at the foot
of the High Street, over which lies the road to Harwich, and
one at the Hithe, as above.

The river is navigable within three miles of the town for
ships of large burthen; a little lower it may receive even a
royal navy: And up to that part called the Hithe, dose to
the houses, it is navigable for hoys and small barks. This
Hithe is a long street, passing from west to east, on the south-
side of the town; at the west-end of it, there is a small inter-
mission of the buildings, but not much; and towards the river
it is very populous; (it may be call'd the Wapping of Colchester;)
there is one church in that part of the town, a large key by
the river, and a good custom-house.

The town may be said chiefly to subsist by the trade of
making bays, which is known over most of the trading parts
of Europe, by the name of Colchester bays, tho' indeed all the
towns round carry on the same trade, namely, Kelvedon,
Wittham, Coggshall, Braintree, Bocking, &c. and the whole
county, large as it is, may be said to be employed, and in part
maintained, by the spinning of wool for the bay trade of Col-
chester, and its adjacent towns. The account of the siege,
anno 1648, with a DIARY of the most remarkable passages, are
as follows, which I had from so good a hand, as that I have no
reason to question its being a true relation.

A DIARY

OR, AN ACCOUNT OF THE

SIEGE AND BLOCKADE OF COLCHESTER

AN. 1648

On the 4th of June, we were alarm'd in the town of Colchester,
that the Lord Goring, the Lord Capel, and a body of 2000 of the
Loyal Party, who had been in arms in Kent, having left a great
body of an army in possession of Rochester Bridge, where they
resolv'd to fight the Lord Fairfax, and the Parliament army;
had given the said General Fairfax the slip, and having pass'd
the Thames at Greenwich, were come to Stratford, and were
advancing this way: Upon which news, Sir Charles Lucas, Sir
George Lisle, Col. Cook, and several gentlemen of the Loyal
army, and all that had commissions from the king, with a
gallant appearance of gentlemen voluntiers, drew together
from all parts of the country, to join with them.

The 8th, we were further informed, that they were advanc'd
to Chelmsford, to New Hall House, and to Witham; and the
9th, some of the horse arriv'd in the town, taking possession
of the gates, and having ingeneers with them, told us, that
General Goring had resolv'd to make this town his head quarters,
and would cause it to be well fortified; they also caused the
drums to beat for voluntiers; and a good number of the poor
bay-weavers, and such-like people, wanting employment, listed:
So that they compleated Sir Charles Lucas's regiment, which
was but thin, to near 800 men.

On the loth we had news, that the Lord Fairfax having
beaten the Royalists at Maidstone, and re-taken Rochester,
had pa-ss'd the Thames at Gravesend, tho' with great difficulty,
and with some loss, and was come to Horndon on the Hill, in
order to gain Colchester before the Royalists; but that hearing
Sir Charles Lucas had prevented him, had order' d his rendezvous
at Billerecay, and intended to possess the pass at Maiden on the
nth, where Sir Thomas Honnywood, with the county Trained
Bands, was to be the same day.

18

ESSEX 19

The same evening the Lord Goring, with all his forces, making
about 5600 men, horse and foot, came to Colchester, and
encamping without the suburbs, under command of the cannon
of St. Mary's Fort, made disposition to fight the Parliament
forces, if they came up.

The i2th, the Lord Goring came into Colchester, viewed the
fort in St. Mary's churchyard, ordered more cannon to be
planted upon it; posted two regiments in the suburbs without
the Head-Gate; let the town know he would take them into
his majesty's protection; and that he would fight the enemy
in that situation. The same evening, the Lord Fairfax, with a
strong party of 1000 horse, came to Lexden, at two small
miles distance, expecting the rest of his army there, the same
night.

The Lord Goring brought in prisoners the same day, Sir
William Masham, and several other gentlemen of the county,
who were secured under a strong guard; which the Parliament
hearing, order'd twenty prisoners of the Royal Party to be
singl'd out, declaring, that they should be used in the same
manner as the Lord Goring used Sir William Masham, and the
gentlemen prisoners with him.

On the I3th, early in the morning, our spies brought intelli-
gence, that the Lord Fairfax, all his forces being come up to
him, was making dispositions for a march, resolving to attack
the Royalists in their camp: Upon which, the Lord Goring drew
all his forces together resolving to fight. The ingineers had
offer'd the night before to entrench his camp and to draw a
line round it in one night's time; but his lordship declined it;
and now there was no time for it: Whereupon the general, Lord
Goring, drew up his army in order of battle, on both sides the
road, the horse in the open fields on the wings; the foot were
drawn up, one regiment in the road; one regiment on each
side, and two regiments for reserve in the suburb, just at the
entrance of the town, with a regiment of voluntiers, advanced
as a forlorn hope, and a regiment of horse at the Head-Gate,
ready to support the reserve, as occasion should require.

About nine in the morning we heard the enemy's drums
beat a march, and in half an hour more their first troops
appeared on the higher grounds towards Lexden; immediately
the cannon from St. Mary's fir'd upon them, and put some
troops of horse into confusion, doing great execution; which,
they not being able to shun it, made them quicken their pace, to
fall on, when our cannon were oblig'd to cease firing, least we

20 DEFOE'S TOUR

should hurt our own troops, as well as the enemy: Soon after,
their foot appeared., and our cannon saluted them in like
manner, and killed them a great many men.

Their first line of foot was led up by Col. Barkstead, and
consisted of three regiments of foot, making about 1700 men,
and these charged our regiment in the lane, commanded by
Sir George Lisle, and Sir William Campion: They fell on with
great fury, and were receiv'd with as much gallantry, and three
times repulsed; nor could they break in here, tho' the Lord
Fairfax sent fresh men to support them, till the Royalists
horse, oppressed with numbers on the left, were obliged to
retire, and at last, to come full gallop into the street, and so
on into the town: Nay, still the foot stood firm, and the volun-
tiers, being all gentlemen, kept their ground with the greatest
resolution: But the left wing being routed, as above, Sir William
Campion was oblig'd to make a front to the left; and lining the
hedge with his musqueteers, made a stand with a body of
pikes against the enemy's horse, and prevented them entering
the lane. Here that gallant gentleman was kilFd with a carabine
shot; and after a very gallant resistance, the horse on the right
being also over-power'd, the word was given to retreat; which
however was done in such good order, the regiments of reserve
standing drawn up at the end of the street, ready to receive the
enemy's horse upon the points of their pikes, that the royal troops
came on in the openings between the regiments, and entered
the town with very little loss, and in very good order.

By this, however, those regiments of reserve, were brought,
at last, to sustain the efforts of the enemy's whole army, till
being overpower'd by numbers, they were put into disorder,
and forced to get into the town in the best manner they could;
by which means near 200 men were kill'd or made prisoners.

Encouraged by this success, the enemy push'd on, supposing
they should enter the town pelmel with the rest; nor did the
Royalists hinder them, but let good part of Barksteads own
regiment enter the Head Gate; but then sallying from St. Mary's
with a choice body of foot on their left, and the horse rallying
in the High-street, and charging them again in the front, they
were driven back quite into the street of the suburb, and most
of those that had so rashly enter'd, were cut in pieces.

Thus they were repulsed at the south entrance into the town;
and tho' they attempted to storm three times after that with
great resolution, yet they were as often beaten back, and that
with great havock of their men; and the cannon from the fort

ESSEX 21

all the while did execution upon those who stood drawn up to
support them: So that at last seeing no good to be done, they
retreated, having small joy of their pretended victory.

They lost in this action Colonel Needham, who commanded
a regiment calTd the Tower Guards, and who fought very
desperately; Capt. Cox, an old experienced horse officer, and
several other officers of note, with a great many private men,
tho' as they had the field, they concealed their number, giving
out, that they lost but an hundred, when we were assured,
they lost near a thousand men besides the wounded.

They -took some of our men prisoners, occasion'd by the
regiment of Colonel Farr, and two more, sustaining the shock
of their whole army, to secure the retreat of the main body,
as above.

The i4th, the Lord Fairfax finding he was not able to carry
the town by storm, without the formality of a siege, took his
head quarters at Lexden, and sent to London, and to Suffolk
for more forces; also he order'd the Trained Bands to be raised,
and posted on the roads, to prevent succours; notwithstanding
which, divers gentlemen, with some assistance of men and
arms, found means to get into the town.

The very same night they began to break ground; and
particularly, to raise a fort between Colchester and Lexden, to
cover the generals quarter from the salleys from the town;
for the Royalists having a good body of horse, gave them no
rest, but scour'd the fields every day, falling on all that were
found stragling from their posts, and by this means kill'd a
great many.

The 1 7th, Sir Charles Lucas having been out with 1200 horse,
and detatching parties toward the sea-side, and towards Har-
wich, they brought in a very great quantity of provisions, and
abundance of sheep and black cattle, sufficient for the supply
of the town for a considerable time; and had not the Suffolk
forces advanced over Cataway Bridge to prevent it, a larger
supply had been brought in that way; for now it appeared
plainly, that the Lord Fairfax finding the garrison strong and
resolute, and that he was not hi a condition to reduce them by
force, at least without the loss of much blood, had resolved to
turn his siege into a blockade, and reduce them by hunger;
their troops being also wanted to oppose several other parties,
who had, in several parts of the kingdom, taken arms for the
king's cause.

This same day General Fairfax sent in a trumpet, to propose

23 DEFOE'S TOUR

exchanging prisoners, which the Lord Goring rejected, expecting
a reinforcement of troops, which were actually coming to him,
and were to be at Linton in Cambridge-shire as the next day.

The same day two ships brought in a quantity of corn and
provisions, and 56 men from the shore of Kent with several
gentlemen, who all landed, and came up to the town, and the
greatest part of the corn was with the utmost application
unloaded the same night into some hoys, which brought it up
to the Hithe, being apprehensive of the Parliaments ships which
lay at Harwich, who having intelligence of the said ships,
came the next day into the mouth of the river, and took the
said two ships, and what corn was left in them. The besieg'd
sent out a party to help the ships, but having no boats they
could not assist them.

18. Sir Charles Lucas sent an answer about exchange of
prisoners, accepting the conditions offer'd, but the Parliaments
general returned that he would not treat with Sir Charles, for
that he Sir Charles being his prisoner upon his parole of honour,
and having appeared in arms contrary to the rules of war, had
forfeited his honour and faith, and was not capable of command
or trust in martial affairs: To this Sir Charles sent back an
answer, and his excuse for his breach of his parole, but it was
not accepted, nor would the Lord Fairfax enter upon any
treaty with him.

Upon this second message, Sir William Masham, and the
Parliament committee and other gentlemen, who were prisoners
in the town, sent a message in writing under their hands to
the Lord Fairfax, intreating him to enter into a treaty for
peace; but the Lord Fairfax returned, he could take no notice
of their request, as supposing it forced from them under
restraint; but, that, if the Lord Goring desir'd peace, he might
write to the Parliament, and he would cause his messenger to
have a safe conduct to carry his letter: There was a paper sent
enclosed in this paper, sign'd Capel, Norwich, Charles Lucas,
but to that the general would return no answer, because it
was sign'd by Sir Charles, for the reason above.

All this while, the Lord Goring, finding the enemy strengthe-
ning themselves, gave order for fortifying the town, and drawing
lines in several places, to secure the entrance, as particularly
without the east bridge, and without the north-gate and bridge,
and to plant more cannon upon the works : To which end, some
great guns were brought in from some shipjs at Wevenhoe.

The same day, our men sally'd out in three places, and

ESSEX 23

attack'd the besiegers, first at their fort, calTd Essex; then at
their new works, on the south of the town; a third party sally-
ing at the east bridge, brought in some booty from the Suffolk
troops, having killed several of their straglers on the Harwich
road: They also took a lieutenant of horse prisoner, and brought
him into the town.

19. This day we had the unwelcome news, that our friends
at Linton were defeated by the enemy, and Major Muschamp,
a loyal gentleman, kilTd.

The same night, our men gave the enemy alarm at their
new Essex Fort, and thereby drew them out as if they would
fight, till they brought them within reach of the cannon of
St. Mary's, and then our men retiring, the great guns let fly
among them, and made them run: Our men shouted after
them; several of them were kill'd on this occasion, one shot
having kilTd three horsemen in our sight.

20. We now found the enemy in order to a perfect blockade,
resolv'd to draw a line of circumvallation round the town;
having receiv'd a train of forty pieces of heavy cannon from
the Tower of London.

This day the Parliament sent a messenger to their prisoners,
to know how they far'd, and how they were used; who return' d
word, that they far'd indifferent well, and were very civilly
used, but that provisions were scarce, and therefore dear.

This day a party of horse with 300 foot, sally'd out, and
marched as far as the fort on the Isle of Mersey, which they
made a shew of attacking, to keep in the garrison; mean while
the rest took a good number of cattle from the country, which
they brought safe into the town, with five waggons loaden with
corn: This was the last they could bring in that way, the lines
being soon finished on that side.

This day the Lord Fairfax sent in a trumpet to the Earl of
Norwich, and the Lord Goring, offering honourable conditions
to them all; allowing all the gentlemen their lives and arms,
exemption from plunder; and passes, if they desir'd to go
beyond sea; and all the private men pardon, and leave to go
peaceably to their own dwellings; but the Lord Goring and
the rest of the gentlemen rejected it, and laughed at them:
Upon which the Lord Fairfax made proclamation, that his
men should give the private soldiers in Colchester free leave
to pass through their camp, and go where they pleased without
molestation, only leaving their arms, but that the gentlemen
should have no quarter: This was a great loss to the Royalists,

24 DEFOE'S TOUR

for now the men foreseeing the great hardships they were like
to suffer, began to slip away, and the Lord Goreing was obliged
to forbid any to desert on pain of present death, and to keep
parties of horse continually patrolling to prevent them; not-
withstanding which, many got away.

21. The town desir'd the Lord Goreing to give them leave
to send a message to Lord Fairfax, to desire they might have
liberty to carry on their trade and sell their bays and says,
which Lord Goreing granted; but the enemy's general return* d,
that they should have considered that before they let the
Royalists into the town: That to desire a free trade from a
town besieg'd, was never heard of, or at least, was such a
motion, as was never yet granted: That however, he would
give the haymakers leave to bring their bays and says, and
other goods, once a week, or oftener, if they desire it, to Lexden
Heath, where they should have a free market, and might sell
them or carry them back again, if not sold, as they found
occasion.

22. The beseig'd sally'd out in the night with a strong party,
and disturb'd the enemy in their works, and partly ruin'd one
of their forts, call'd Ewer's Fort, where the besiegers were laying
a bridge over the River Coin; Also they sally'd again at East-
Bridge, and faced the Suffolk troops, who were now declared
enemies, these brought in six and fifty good bullocks, and some
cows, and they took and kill'd several of the enemy.

23. The besiegers began to fire with their cannon from
Essex Fort, and from Barksted's Fort, which was built upon
the Maiden road, and finding that the besieged had a party
in Sir Harbottle Grimston's house, calTd, The Fryery, they
fir'd at it with their cannon, and batter*d it almost down,
and then the soldiers set it on fire.

This day upon the townsmen's treaty for the freedom of
the bay trade, the Lord Fairfax sent a second offer of con-
ditions to the besieg'd, being, the same as before, only excepting
Lord Goring, Lord Capel, Sir George Lisle, and Sir Charles Lucas.

This day we had news in the town, that the Suffolk forces
were advanc'd to assist the besiegers and that they began a
fort call'd Fort Suffolk, on the north side of the town, to shut
up the Suffolk road towards Stratford. This day the besieg'd
sally'd out at North-Bridge, attack'd the out-guards of the
Suffolk men on Mile-End Heath, and drove them into their
fort in the woods.

This day Lord Fairfax sent a trumpet, complaining of chew'd

ESSEX 25

and poison'd bullets being shot from the town, and threatning
to give no quarter if that practice was allow'd; but Lord Goring
return'd answer, with a protestation, that no such thing was
done by his order or consent.

24th. They fir'd hard from their cannon against St. Mary's
steeple, on which was planted a large culverin, which annoy'd
them even in the general's head quarters at Lexden. One of
the best gunners the garrison had, was kill'd with a cannon
bullet. This night the besieg'd sally'd towards Audly, on the
Suffolk road, and brought in some cattle.

25. Lord Capell sent a trumpet to the Parliament-General,
but the rogue ran away, and came not back, nor sent any
answer; whether they received his message or not, was not known.

26. This day having finish'd their new bridge, a party of
their troops pass'd that bridge, and took post on the hill over-
against Mile-End Church, where they built a fort, calPd Fother-
galTs Fort, and another on the east side of the road, call'd
Rainsbro's Fort, so that the town was entirely shut in, on that
side, and the Royalists had no place free but over East Bridge,
which was afterwards cut off by the enemy's bringing their line
from the Hithe within the river to the Stone Causeway leading
to the east bridge.

July i. From the 26th to the ist, the besiegers continu'd
finishing their works, and by the ad the whole town was shut
in; at which the besiegers gave a general salvo from their
cannon at all their forts; but the besieged gave them a return,
for they sally'd out in the night, attacked Barkstead's Fort,
scarce finish'd, with such fury, that they twice enter'd the
work sword in hand, kilTd most part of the defendant's, and
spoil' d part of the forts cast up; but fresh forces coming up,
they retir'd with little loss, bringing eight prisoners, and having
slain, as they reported, above 100.

On the second, Lord Fairfax offer'd exchange for Sir William
Masham in particular, and afterwards for other prisoners, but
the Lord Goring refus'd.

5. The besieged sally'd with two regiments, supported by
some horse, at midnight; They were commanded by Sir George
Lisle; They fell on with such fury, that the enemy were put
into confusion, their works at East-Bridge ruin'd, and two
pieces of cannon taken, Lieutenant Col. Sambrook, and several
other officers, were kill'd, and our men retir'd into the town,
bringing the captain, two lieutenants, and about 50 men with
them prisoners into the town; but having no horse, we could

26 DEFOE'S TOUR

not bring off the cannon, but they spik'd them, and made them
unfit for service.

From this time to the nth, the besieged, sally'd almost every
night, being encouraged by their successes, and they constantly cut
off some of the enemy, but not without loss also on their own side.

About this time we received by a spy, the bad news of defeating
the king's friends almost in all parts of England, and par-
ticularly several parties which had good wishes to our gentlemen,
and intended to relieve them.

Our batteries from St. Mary's Fort and Steeple, and from the
North-Bridge, greatly annoy'd them, and kilTd most of their
gunners and fire-men. One of the messengers who brought
news to Lord Fairfax of the defeat of one of the parties in Kent,
and the taking of Weymer Castle, slip'd into the town, and
brought a letter to the Lord Goring, and listed in the regiment
of the Lord Capel's horse.

14. The besiegers attack'd and took the Hithe Church, with
a small work the besieged had there, but the defenders retired
in time; some were taken prisoners in the church, but not in the
fort: Sir Charles Lucas's house was attack'd by a great body
of the Besiegers; the besieged defended themselves with good
resolution for some time, but a hand-grenado thrown in by the
assailants, having fir'd the magazine, the house was blown up,
and most of the gallant defenders buried in the ruines. This was
a great blow to the Royalists, for it was a very strong pass,
and always well guarded.

15. The Lord Fairfax sent offers of honourable conditions
to the soldiers of the garrison, if they would surrender, or quit
the service, upon which the Lords Goring and Capel, and Sir
Charles Lucas, returned an answer signed by their hands, that
it was not honourable or agreeable to the usage of war, to offer
conditions separately to the soldiers, exclusive of their officers,
and therefore civilly desir'd his lordship to send no more such
messages or proposals, or if he did, that he would not take it
ill if they hang'd up the messenger.

This evening all the gentlemen voluntiers, with all the horse
of the garrison, with Sir Charles Lucas, Sir George Lisle, and
Sir Bernard Gascoign at the head of them, resolved to break
through the enemy, and forcing a pass to advance into Suffolk
by Nayland Bridge; to this purpose, they pass'd the river near
Middle-Mill; but their guides having mislead them, the enemy
took the alarm; upon which their guides, and some pioneers
which they had with them, to open the hedges, and level the

ESSEX 27

banks, for their passing to Boxted, all run away; so the horse
were obliged to retreat; the enemy pretended to pursue, but
thinking they had retreated by the North Bridge, they miss'd
them; upon which being enraged, they fir'd the suburbs without
the bridge, and burn'd them quite down.

18. Some of the horse attempted to escape the same way;
and had the whole body been there as before, they had effected
it; but there being but two troops, they were obliged to retire.
Now the town began to be greatly distressed, provisions failing;
and the town's people, which were numerous, being very uneasy,
and no way of breaking through being found practicable, the
gentlemen would have joined in any attempt wherein they might
die gallantly with their swords in their hands, but nothing
presented; they often sally'd and cut off many of the enemy,
but ^their numbers were continually supplied, and the besieged
diminished; their horse also sunk and became unfit for service,
having very little hay, and no corn; and at length they were
forced to kill them for food; so that they began to be in a very
miserable condition, and the soldiers deserted every day in
great numbers, not being able to bear the want of food, as being
almost starved with hunger.

22. The Ld. Fairfax offered again an exchange of prisoners,
but the Lord Goring rejected it, because they refused conditions
to the chief gentlemen of the garrison.

During this time, two troops of the Royal Horse sallied out
in the night, resolving to break out or die: The first rode up full
gallop to the enem/s horse-guards on the side of Maiden Road,
and exchanged their pistols with the advanced troops, and
wheeling, made as if they would retire to the town; but finding
they were not immediately pursued, they wheeled about to
the right, and passing another guard at a distance, without
being perfectly discovered, they went clean off, and passing
towards Tiptree Heath, and having good guides, they made
their escape towards Cambridge-shire, in which length of way
they found means to disperse without being attack'd, and went
every man his own way as fate directed; nor did we hear that
many of them were taken: They were led, as we are informed,
by Sir Bernard Gascoigne.

Upon these attempts of the Horse to break out, the enemy
built a small fort in the meadow right against the ford, in the
river, at the Middle Mill, and once set that mill on fire, but it
was extinguished without much damage; however the fort
prevented any more attempts that way.

28 DEFOE'S TOUR

23. The Parliament General sent in a trumpet, to propose
again the exchange of prisoners, offering the Lord Capel's son
for one, and Mr. Ashburnham, for Sir wSliam Masham; but the
Lord Capel, Lord Goring, and the rest of the loyal gentlemen
rejected it; and Lord Capel in particular sent the Lord Fairfax
word, it was inhuman to surprize his son, who was not in arms,
and offer him to insult a father's affection, but that he might
murther his son if he pleased, he would leave his blood to be
revenged as Heaven should give opportunity; and the Lord
Goring sent word, that as they had reduced the king's servants
to eat horse-flesh, the prisoners should feed as they fed.

The enemy sent again to complain of the Royalists shooting
poisoned bullets, and sent two affidavits of it made by two
deserters, swearing it was done by the Lord Norwich's direction:
The generals in the town returned under all their hands, that
they never gave any such command or direction; that they
disown'd the practice; and that the fellows who swore it were
perjured before in running from their colours, and the service
of their king, and ought not to be credited again: But they
added, that for shooting rough-cast slugs they must excuse them,
as things stood with them at that time.

About this time a porter in a soldier's habit got through
the enemy's leaguer, and passing their out-guards in the dark,
got into the town, and brought letters from London, assuring
the Royalists, that there were so many strong parties up in
arms for the king, and in so many places, that they would be
very suddenly reliev'd: This they caus'd to be read to the
soldiers to encourage them; and particularly it related to the
rising of the Earl of Holland, and the Duke of Buckingham,
who with 500 Horse were gotten together in arms about Kingston
in Surrey; but we had notice in a few days after, that they were
defeated, and the Earl of Holland taken, who was afterwards
beheaded.

26. The enemy now began to batter the walls, and especially
on the west-side, from St. Mary's towards the North Gate; and
we were assured they intended a storm; on which the ingeniers
were directed to make entrenchments behind the walls where
the breaches should be made, that in case of a storm, they
might meet with a warm reception: Upon this, they gave over
the design of storming. The Lord Goring finding that the enemy
had set the suburbs on fire right against the Hithe, ordered the
remaining houses, which were empty of inhabitants, from whence
their musketeers fir'd against the town, to be burn'd also.

ESSEX 29

31. A body of foot sally'd out at midnight, to discover what
the enemy were doing at a place where they thought a new fort
raiseing; they fell in among the workmen, and put them to
flight, cut in pieces several of the guard, and brought in the officer
who commanded them prisoner.

Aug. 2. The town was now in a miserable condition, the
soldiers searched and rifled the houses of the inhabitants for
victuals; they had liv'd on horse-flesh several weeks, and most
of that also was lean as carrion, which not being well salted
bred worms; and this want of diet made the soldiers sickly,
and many died of fluxes, yet they boldly rejected all offers of
surrender, unless with safety to their officers: However, several
hundreds got out, and either pass'd the enemy's guards, or
surrender'd to them, and took passes.

Aug. 7. The town's people became very uneasy to the soldiers,
and the mayor of the town, with the aldermen, waited upon the
general, desiring leave to send to the Lord Fairfax, for leave to
all the inhabitants to come out of the town, that they might
not perish; to which the Lord Goring consented; but the Lord
Fairfax refused them.

12. The rabble got together in a vast crowd about the Lord
Goring's quarters, clamouring for a surrender, and they did
this every evening, bringing women and children, who lay
howling and crying on the ground for bread; the soldiers beat
off the men, but the women and children would not stir, bidding
the soldiers kill them, saying they had rather be shot than
be starved.

16. The general mov'd by the cries and distress of the poor
inhabitants, sent out a trumpet to the Parliament General,
demanding leave to send to the prince, who was with a fleet of
19 men of war in the mouth of the Thames, offering to sur-
render, if they were not reliev'd in 20 days. The Lord Fairfax
refused it, and sent them word, he would be in the town in
person, and visit them in less than 20 days, intimating that
they were preparing for a storm. Some tart messages a.nd
answers were exchanged on this occasion. The Lord Goring
sent word, they were willing, in compassion to the poor town's
people, and to save that effusion of blood, to surrender upon
honourable terms, but that as for the storming them, which was
threaten' d, they might come on when they thought fit, for that
they (the Royalists) were ready for them. This held to the 19.

20. The Lord Fairfax return'd, what he said, was his last
answer, and should be the last offer of mercy: The conditions

30 DEFOE'S TOUR

offered were, That upon a peaceable surrender, all soldiers and
officers under the degree of a captain, in commission, should
have their lives, be exempted from plunder, and have passes
to go to their respective dwellings: All the captains and superior
officers, with all the lords and gentlemen, as well in commission
as voluntiers, to surrender prisoners at discretion, only that
they should not be plundered by the soldiers.

21. The generals rejected those offers; and when the people
came about them again for bread, set open one of the gates,
and bid them go out to the enemy, which a great many did
willingly; upon which the Lord Goring ordered all the rest that
came about his door, to be turn'd out after them: But when the
people came to the Lord Fairfax's camp, the out-guards were
order'd to fire at them, and drive them all back again to the
gate; which the Lord Goring seeing, he order'd them to be
received in again. And now, altho' the generals and soldiers
also, were resolute to die with their swords in their hands,
rather than yield, and had maturely resolv'd to abide a storm;
yet the mayor and aldermen having petitioned them, as well
as the inhabitants, being wearied with the importunities of
the distressed people, and pitying the deplorable condition
they were reduced to, they agreed to enter upon a treaty, and
accordingly, sent out some officers to the Lord Fairfax, the
Parliament General, to treat; and with them was sent two
gentlemen of the prisoners upon their parole to return.

Upon the return of the said messengers with the Lord Fairfax's
terms, the Lord Goring, &c. sent out a letter, declaring they
would die with their swords hi their hands, rather than yield
without quarter for life, and sent a paper of articles, on which
they were willing to surrender: But in the very interim of this
treaty, news came, that the Scots army under Duke Hamilton,
which was enter' d into Lancashire, and was joyn'd by the
Royalists in that county, making 21000 men, were entirely
defeated. After this, the Ld. Fairfax would not grant any
abatement of articles, viz, To have all above lieutenants
surrender at mercy.

Upon this, the Lord Goring and the general refused to submit
again, and proposed a general sally, and to break through or
die, but found upon preparing for it, that the soldiers, who had
their lives offered them, declined it, fearing the gentlemen
would escape, and they should be left to the mercy of the
Parliament soldiers; and that upon this they began to mutiny,
and talk of surrendering the town, and their officers too. Things

ESSEX 31

being brought to this pass, the lords and general laid aside
that design, and found themselves oblig'd to submit: And so
the town was surrendered the 28th of August, 1648, upon
conditions, as follows,

The lords and gentlemen all prisoners at mercy.

The common soldiers had passes to go home to their several
dwellings, but without arms, and on oath not to serve against
the Parliament.

The town to be preserved from pillage, paying 14000?. ready
money.

The same day a Council of War being calPd about the
prisoners of war, it was resolv'd, That the lords should be
left to the disposal of the Parliament. That Sir Charles Lucas,
Sir George Lisle, and Sir Mannaduke Gascoign, should be shot
to death, and the other officers prisoners, to remain in custody
till farther order.

The two first of the three gentlemen were shot to death,
and the third respited.

Thus ended the Siege of COLCHESTER.

N.B. Notwithstanding the number killed in the siege, and
dead of the flux, and other distempers, occasioned by bad
diet, which were very many, and notwithstanding the number
which deserted and escap'd in the time of their hardships, yet
there remained at the time of the surrender,

Earl of Norw. (Goring)
Lord Capell.
Lord Loughbro'
ii Knights
9 Colonels

8 Lieut. Colonels

9 Majors
30 Captains

72 Lieutenants

69 Ensigns
183 Serj. and corpor.
3067 Private soldiers
65 Servants to the lords
and general officers and
gentlemen.

3513. in afl.

The town of Colchester has been suppos'd to contain about
40000 people, including the out-villages which are within its
liberty, of which there are a great many, the liberty of the
town being of a great extent: One sad testimony of the town
being so populous is, that they bury'd upwards of 5259 people
in the Plague Year, 1665. But the town was severely visited
indeed, even more in proportion than any of its neighbours, or
than the city of London.

32 DEFOE'S TOUR

The government of the town is by a mayor, high steward,
a recorder, or his deputy, eleven aldermen, a chamberlain,
a town-clerk, assistants, and eighteen common-council-men.
Their high-steward (this year, 1722.) is Sir Isaac Rebow, a
gentleman of a good family and known character, who has
generally, for above 30 years, been one of their representatives
in Parliament: He has a very good house at the entrance in at
the South, or head gate of the town, where he has had the
honour, several times, to lodge and entertain the late King
William, of glorious memory, in his returning from Holland, by
way of Harwich to London. Their recorder is Earl Cowper, who
has been twice lord high-chancellor of England: But his lord-
ship not residing in those parts, has put in for his deputy,

Price, Esq; Barrister at Law, and who dwells in the town.

There are in Colchester eight churches, besides those which
are damag'd, and five meeting-houses, whereof two for Quakers;
besides a Dutch church and a French church.

Public edifices are,

1. Bay-Hall, an ancient society kept up for ascertaining the
manufactures of bays; which are, or ought to be, all brought to
this hall, to be viewed and sealed according to their goodness,
by the masters; and to this practice has been owing the great
reputation of the Colchester bays in foreign markets; where to
open the side of a bale and shew the seal, has been enough to
give the buyer a character of the value of the goods without
any farther search; and so far as they abate the integrity and
exactness of their method, which, I am told, of late is much
omitted; I say, so far, that reputation will certainly abate in
the markets they go to, which are principally in Portugal and
Italy. This corporation is governed by a particular set of men
who are call'd Governors of the Dutch Bay Hall. And in the same
building is the Dutch church.

2. The Guild Hall of the town, called by them the Moot
Hall; to which is annex' d the town goal.

3. The Work-house, being lately enlarg'd, and to which
belongs a corporation, or a body of the inhabitants, consisting
of sixty persons incorporated by Act of Parliament anno 1698,
for taking care of the poor: They are incorporated by the
name and title of The Governor, Deputy Governor, Assistants,
and Guardians, of the Poor of the Town of Colchester. They are
in number eight and forty; to whom are added the mayor and

ESSEX 33

aldermen for the time being, who are always guardians by the
same Charter: These make the number of sixty, as above.

There is also a grammar free-school, with a good allowance
to the master, who is chosen by the town.

4. The Castle of Colchester is now become only a monument
shewing the antiquity of the place, it being built as the walls of
the town also are, with Roman bricks; and the Roman coins
dug up here, and ploughed up in the fields adjoining, confirm
it. The inhabitants boast much, that Helena, the mother of
Constantine the Great, first Christian Emperor of the Romans,
was born there; and it may be so for ought we know; I only
observe what Mr. Camden says of the castle of Colchester, viz.

"In the middle of this city stands a castle ready to fall with
age." 1

Tho' this castle has stood an hundred and twenty years from
the time Mr. Camden wrote that account, and it is not fallen
yet; nor will another hundred and twenty years, I believe,
make it look one jot the older: And it was observable, that in
the late siege of this town, a cannon shot, which the besiegers
made at this old castle, were so far from making it fall, that
they made little or no impression upon it; for which reason,
it seems, and because the garrison made no great use of it
against the besiegers, they fir'd no more at it.

There are two CHARITY SCHOOLS set up here, and carried
on by a generous subscription, with very good success.

The title of Colchester is in the family of Earl Rivers; and
the eldest son of that family, is called Lord Colchester; tho',
as I understand, the title is not settled by the creation, to the
eldest son, till he enjoys the title of Earl with it; but that the
other is by the courtesy of England; however this I take ad
referendum.

From Colchester, I took another step down to the coast, the
land running out a great way into the sea, south, and S.E.
makes that promontory of land called the Nase, and well
known to sea-men, using the northern trade. Here one sees
a sea open as an ocean, without any opposite shore, tho' it
be no more than the mouth of the Thames. This point calTd
the Nase, and the N.E. point of Kent, near Margate, call'd
the North Foreland, making (what they call) the mouth of the
river, and the port of London, tho' it be here above 60 miles over,
i Camd., Brit. FoL 353.

34 DEFOE'S TOUR

At Walton, under the Nase, they find on the shoar, copperas-
stone in great quantities; and there are several large works
calTd Copperas Houses, where they make it with great expence.

On this promontory is a new sea mark, erected by the Trinity-
House men, and at the publick expence, being a round brick
tower, near 80 foot high. The sea gains so much upon the
land here, by the continual winds at S.W. that within the
memory of some of the inhabitants there, they have lost above
30 acres of land in one place.

From hence we go back into the country about four miles,
because of the creeks which lie between; and then turning east
again, come to Harwich, on the utmost eastern point of this
large country.

Harwich is a town so well known, and so perfectly described
by many writers, I need say little of it: 'Tis strong by situation,
and may be made more so by art. But 'tis many years since the
Government of England have had any occasion to fortify towns
to the landward; 'tis enough that the harbour or road, which
is one of the best and securest in England, is cover'd at the
entrance by a strong fort, and a battery of guns to the sea-
ward, just as at Tilbury, and which sufficiently defend the mouth
of the river: And there is a particular felicity in this fortification,
viz. That tho' the entrance or opening of the river into the
sea, is very wide, especially at high-water, at least two miles,
if not three over; yet the channel, which is deep, and in which
the ships must keep and come to the harbour, is narrow, and
lies only on the side of the fort; so that all the ships which come
in, or go out, must come close under the guns of the fort; that
is to say, under the command of their shot.

The fort is on the Suffolk side of the bay, or entrance, but
stands so far into the sea upon the point of a sand or shoal,
which runs out toward the Essex side, as it were, laps over the
mouth of that haven like a blind to it; and our surveyors of
the country affirm it to be in the county of Essex. The making
this place, which was formerly no other than a sand in the sea,
solid enough for the foundation of so good a fortification, has
not been done but by many years labour, often repairs, and
an infinite expence of money, but 'tis now so firm, that nothing
of storms and high tides, or such things, as make the sea
dangerous to these kind of works, can affect it.

The harbour is of a vast extent; for, as two rivers empty
themselves here, viz, Stour from Mainingtree, and the Orwel
from Ipswich, the channels of both are large and deep, and safe

ESSEX 35

for all weathers; so where they joyn they make a large bay or
road ; able to receive the biggest ships, and the greatest number
that ever the world saw together; I mean, ships of war. In the
old Dutch War, great use has been made of this harbour; and
I have known that there has been 100 sail of men of war and
their attendants, and between three and four hundred sail of
collier ships, all in this harbour at a time, and yet none of them
crowding, or riding in danger of one another.

Harwich is known for being the port where the packet-boats
between England and Holland, go out and come in: The in-
habitants are far from being fam'd for good usage to strangers,
but on the contrary, are blamed for being extravagant in their
reckonings, in the publick houses, which has not a little
encourag'd the setting up of sloops, which they now call passage-
boats, to Holland, to go directly from the river of Thames;
this, tho j it may be something the longer passage, yet as they
are said to be more obliging to passengers, and more reasonable
in the expence, and as some say also the vessels are better
sea-boats, has been the reason why so many passengers do
not go or come by the way of Harwich, as formerly were wont
to do; insomuch, that the stage-coaches, between this place
and London, which ordinarily went twice or three times a
week, are now entirely laid down, and the passengers are left
to hire coaches on purpose, take post-horses, or lure horses
to Colchester, as they find most convenient.

The account of a petrifying quality in the earth here, tho'
some will have it to be in the water of a spring hard by, is very-
strange: They boast that their town is walTd, and their streets
pav'd with clay, and yet, that one is as strong, and the other
as clean as those that are built or pav'd with stone: The fact is
indeed true, for there is a sort of clay in the cliff, between the
town and the beacon-hill adjoining, which when it falls down
into the sea, where it is beaten with the waves and the weather,
turns gradually into stone: but the chief reason assigned, is
from the water of a certain spring or well, which rising in the
said cliff, runs down into the sea among those pieces of clay,
and petrifies them as it runs, and the force of the sea often
stirring, and perhaps, turning the lumps of day, when storms
of wind may give force enough to the water, causes them to
harden every where alike; otherwise those which were not quite
sunk in the water of the spring, would be petrify' d but in part.
These stones are gathered up to pave the streets, and build
the houses, and are indeed very hard: Tis also remarkable,

36 DEFOE'S TOUR

that some of them taken up before they are thoroughly petrify'cU
will, upon breaking them, appear to be hard as a stone without,
and soft as clay in the middle; whereas others, that have layn
a due time, shafi be thorough stone to the center, and as exceed-
ing hard within, as without: The same spring is said to turn
wood into iron: But this I take to be no more or less than the
quality, which as I mentioned of the shoar at the Ness, is found
to be in much of the stone, all along this shoar, (viz.) Of the
copperas kind; and 'tis certain, that the copperas stone (so
call'd) is found in all that cliff, and even where the water of
this spring has run; and I presume, that those who call the
harden'd pieces of wood, which they take out of this well by
the name of iron, never try'd the quality of it with the fire or
hammer; if they had, perhaps they would have given some
other account of it.

On the promontory of land, which they call Beacon-Hill,
and which lies beyond, or behind the town, towards the sea,
there is a light-house, to give the ships directions in their
sailing by, as well as their coming into the harbour in the night.
I shafi take notice of these again all together, when I come to
speak of the Society of Trinity House, as they are called, by
whom they are all directed upon this coast.

This town was erected into a marquisate, in honour of the
truly glorious family of Schomberg, the eldest son of Duke
Schomberg, who landed with King William, being stiled Marquis
of Harwich; but that family (in England at least) being extinct,
the title dies also.

Harwich is a town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety
and pleasure; yet the inhabitants seem warm in their nests,
and some of them are very wealthy: There are not many (if
any) gentlemen or families of note, either in the town, or very
near it. They send two members to Parliament; the present
are, Sir Peter Parker, and Humphrey Parsons, Esq.

And now being at the extremity of the county of Essex, of
which I have given you some view, as to that side next the sea
only; I shall break off this part of my letter, by telling you,
that I will take the towns which lie more towards the center
of the county, in my return by the north and west part only,
that I may give you a few hints of some towns which were near
me in my rout this way, and of which being so well known,
there is but little to say.

On the road from London to Colchester, before I came into
it at Witham, lie four good market-towns at equal distance

ESSEX 37

from one another; namely, Rumford, noted for two markets,
(viz.) one for calves and hogs, the other for corn and other
provisions; most, if not all, bought up for London market. At
the farther end of the town, in the middle of a stately park,
stood Guldy Hall, vulgarly Giddy Hall, an antient seat of one
Coke, sometime Lord-Mayor of London, but forfeited, on some
occasion, to the Crown: It is since pulTd down to the ground,
and there now stands a noble stately fabrick or mansion-house,
built upon the spot by Sir John Eyles, a wealthy merchant of
London, and chosen sub-governor of the South-Sea Company,
immediately after the ruin of the former sub-governor and
directors, whose overthrow makes the history of these times
famous.

Brent-Wood and Ingarstone, and even Chelmsford itself, have
very little to be said of them, but that they are large thorough-
fair towns, full of good inns, and chiefly maintained by the
excessive multitude of carriers and passengers, which are
constantly passing this way to London, with droves of cattle,
provisions, and manufactures for London.

The last of these towns is indeed the county-town, where
the county jayl is kept, and where the assizes are very often
held; it stands on the conflux of two rivers, the Chelmer, whence
the town is called, and the Cann.

At Lees, or Lee's Priory, as some call it, is to be seen an
antient house, in the middle of a beautiful park, formerly the
seat of the late Duke of Manchester, but since the death of the
duke, it is sold to the Dutchess Dowager of Buckinghamshire;
the present Duke of Manchester, retiring to his antient family
seat at Kimbolton in Huntingdonshire, it being a much finer
residence. His grace is lately married to a daughter of the
Duke of Montague by a branch of the house of Marlborough.

Four market-towns fill up the rest of this part of the country;
Dunmow, Braintre, Thaxted, and CoggshaU; all noted for the
manufacture of bays, as above, and for very little else, except
I shall make the ladies laugh, at the famous old story of the
Flitch of Bacon at Dunmow, which is this:

One Robert Fitz-Walter, a powerful baron in this county,
in the time of Hen. III. on some merry occasion, which is not
preserv'd in the rest of the story, instituted a custom in the
priory here; That whatever married man did not repent of his
being marry' d, or quarrel, or differ and dispute with his wife,
within a year and a day after his marriage, and would swear to
the truth of it, kneeling upon two hard pointed stones in the

38 DEFOE'S TOUR

church yard, which stones he caus'd to be set up in the priory
church-yard, tor that purpose: The prior and convent, and as
many of the to\*n as would, to be present: such person should
have a flitch of bacon.

I do not remember to have read, that any one ever came to
demand it; nor do the people of the place pretend to say, of
their own knowledge, that they remember any that did so; a
long time ago several did demand it, as they say, but they know
not who; neither is there any record of it; nor do they tell us,
if it were now to be demanded, who is obliged to deliver the
flitch of bacon, the priory being dissolved and gone.

The forest of Epping and Henalt, spreads a great part of
this country still: I shall speak again of the former in my
return from this circuit. Formerly, ('tis thought) these two
forests took up all the west and south part of the county; but
particularly we are assur'd, that it reach' d to the River Chelmer,
and into Dengy Hundred; and from thence again west to
Epping and Waltham, where it continues to be a forest still.
Probably this forest of Epping has been a wild or forest
ever since this island was inhabited, and may shew us, in some
parts of it, where enclosures and tillage has not broken in upon
it, what the face of this island was before the Romans time;
that is to say, before their landing in Britain.

The constitution of this forest is best seen, I mean, as to the
antiquity of it, by the merry grant of it from Edward the Con-
fessor, before the Norman Conquest to Randolph Peperking,
one of his favourites, who was after called Peverell, and whose
name remains still in several villages in this county; as par-
ticularly that of Hatfield Peverell, in the road from Chelmsf ord
to Witham, which is suppos'd to be originally a park, which
they call'd a field in those days; and Hartfield may be as much
as to say a park for deer; for the stags were in those days called
harts; so that this was neither more nor less than Randolph
Peperking's Hartfield; that is to say, Ralph PeverelTs deer-park.
N.B. This Ralph Randolph, or Ralph Peverell (call him as
you please) had, it seems, a most beautiful lady to his wife,
who was daughter of Ingelrick, one of Edward the Confessor's
noblemen: He had two sons by her, William Peverell, a fam'd
soldier, and Lord or Governor of Dover Castle; which he sur-
render'd to William the Conqueror, after the Battle of Sussex;
and Pain Peverell, his youngest, who was Lord of Cambridge:
When the eldest son delivered up the castle, the lady his mother,
Above nam'd, who was the celebrated beauty of the age, was

ESSEX 39

it seems there; and the Conqueror fell in love with her, and
whether by force, or by consent, took her away, and she became
his mistress, or what else you please to call it: By her he had a
son, who was call'd William, after the Conqueror's Christian
name, but retain'd the name of Peverell, and was afterwards
created by the Conqueror, Lord of Nottingham.

This lady afterwards, as is supposed, by way of penance, for
her yielding to the Conqueror, founded a nunnery at the village
of Hatfield-Peverell, mentioned above, and there she lies buried
in the chapel of it, which is now the parish-church, where her
memory is preserved by a tomb-stone under one of the windows.

Thus we have several towns, where any antient parks have
been plac'd, calTd by the name of Hatfield on that very account.

As Hatfield Broad Oak in this county, Bishop's Hatfield in
Hertfordshire, and several others.

But I return to King Edward's merry way, as I call it, of
granting this forest to this Ralph Peperking, which I find
in the antient records, in the very words it was pass'd in, as
follows: Take my explanations with it, for the sake of those
that are not us'd to the antient English.

The GRANT in Old English The Explanation in Modem English

I Che EDWARD Koning, I EDWARD the King,

Have given of my forrest the kepen Have made Ranger of my forest

of the Hundred of Chelmer and of Chelmsford Hundred, and

Dancing, Deeiing Hundred,

To RANDOLPH PEPERKING, Ralph Peverell, for him and his

And to his inn filing heirs for ever;

With heorte and hind, doe and With both the red and fallow deer,
bocke,

Hare and fox, cat and brock, Hare and fox, otter and badger;

Wild fowle with his flock; Wild fowl of all sorts,

Patrich, pheasant hen, and phea- Partridges and pheasants,
sant cock,

With green and wild stub and stock, Timber and underwood, roots and

tops:

L and to yemen with all her With power to preserve the forest,

by day, and eke by night; And watch it against deer stealers

and others:

And hounds for to hold, With a right to keep hounds of all

Good and swift, and bold: sorts, ^

Four greyhound, and six raches, Four grey-hounds, and six terriers,

For hare and fox, and wild cattes, Harriers and fox-hounds, and other

hounds.

And therefore Iche made him my And to this end I have registered
book- this my Grant, in the Crown

' rolls or books ;

Witness the Bishop of Wolston, To which the bishop has set his
And book ylrede many on, hand as a witness for any one to

read;

40 DEFOE'S TOUR

And Sweyne of Essex, our brother, Also signed by the king's brother

(or, as some think, the Chancellor
Sweyn, then Earl or Count of
Essex)

And taken Mm many other He might call such other -witnesses

to sign as he thought fit.

And our steward Howelin, Also the king's high steward was

That by-sought me for him. a witness, at whose request this

Grant was obtained of the king.

There are many gentlemen's seats on this side the county,
and a great assemblee set up at New-Hall, near this town, much
resorted to by the neighbouring gentry. I shall next proceed to
the county of Suffolk, as my first design directed me to do.

From HARWICH therefore, having a mind to view the harbour,
I sent my horses round by Maningtree, where there is a timber
bridge over the Stour, called Cataway Bridge, and took a boat
up the River Orwell, for Ipswich; a traveller will hardly under-
stand me, especially a seaman, when I speak of the River Stour
and the River Orwell at Harwich, for they know them by no
other names than those of Maningtre- Water, and Ipswich- Water;
so while I am on salt water, I must speak as those who use the
sea may understand me, and when I am up in the country
among the in-land towns again, I shall call them out of their
names no more.

It is twelve miles from Harwich up the water to Ipswich:
Before I come to the town, I must say something of it, because
speaking of the river requires it: In former times, that is to
say, since the writer of this remembers the place very well,
and particularly just before the late Dutch Wars, Ipswich was
a town of very good business; particularly it was the greatest
town in England for large colliers or coal-ships, employed
between New Castle and London: Also they built the biggest
ships and the best, for the said fetching of coals of any that
were employ'd in that trade: They built also there so prodigious
strong, that it was an ordinary thing for an Ipswich collier, if
no disaster happened to him, to reign (as seamen call it) forty
or fifty years, and more.

In the town of Ipswich the masters of these ships generally
dwelt, and there were, as they then told me, above a hundred
sail of them, belonging to the town at one time, the least of
which carried fifteen-score, as they compute it, that is, 300
chaldron of coals; this was about the year 1668 (when I first
knew the place). This made the town be at that time so populous,
for those masters, as they had good ships at sea, so they
had large families, who liv'd plentifully, and in very good

ESSEX 41

houses in the town, and several streets were chiefly inhabited
by such.

The loss or decay of this trade, accounts for the present
pretended decay of the town of Ipswich, of which I shall speak
more presently: The ships wore out, the masters died off, the
trade took a new turn; Dutch flyboats taken in the war, and
made free ships by Act of Parliament, thrust themselves into
the coal-trade for the interest of the captors, such as the
Yarmouth and London merchants, and others ; and the Ipswich
men dropt gradually out of it, being discouraged by those
Dutch flyboats: These Dutch vessels which cost nothing but
the caption, were bought cheap, carried great burthens, and
the Ipswich building fell off for want of price, and so the trade
decay'd, and the town with it; I believe this will be own'd
for the true beginning of their decay, if I must allow it to be
calTd a decay.

But to return to my passage up the river. In the winter
time those great collier-ships, abovemention'd, are always laid
up, as they call it: That is to say, the coal trade abates at
London, the citizens are generally furnish'd, their stores taken
in, and the demand is over; so that the great ships, the northern
seas and coast being also dangerous, the nights long, and the
voyage hazardous, go to sea no more, but lie by, the ships are
unrigg'd, the sails, &c. carry'd a shore, the top-masts struck,
and they ride moor'd in the river, under the advantages and
security of sound ground, and a high woody shore, where
they lie as safe as in a wet dock; and it was a very agreeable
sight to see, perhaps two hundred sail of ships, of all sizes
lye in that posture every winter: All this while, which was
usually from Michaelmas to Lady Day, The masters liv'd calm
and secure with their families in Ipswich; and enjoying plenti-
fully, what in the summer they got laboriously at sea, and
this made the town of Ipswich very populous in the winter;
for as the masters, so most of the men, especially their mates,
boatswains, carpenters, &c. were of the same place, and liv'd
in their proportions, just as the masters did; so that in the
winter there might be perhaps a thousand men in the town
more than in the summer, and perhaps a greater number.

To justify what I advance here, that this town was formerly
very full of people, I ask leave to refer to the account of
Mr. Camden, and what it was in his tune, his words are these.

"Ipswich has a commodious harbour, has been fortified with a

42 DEFOE'S TOUR

ditch and rampart, has a great trade, and is very populous; being
adorned with fourteen churches, and large private buildings."

This confirms what I have mentioned of the former state of
this town; but the present state is my proper work; I therefore
return to my voyage up the river.

The sight of these ships thus laid up in the river, as I have
said, was very agreeable to me in my passage from Harwich,
about five and thirty years before the present journey; and
it was in its proportion equally melancholy to hear, that there
were now scarce 40 sail of good colliers that belonged to the
whole town.

In a creek in this river calPd Lavington-Creek we saw at
low water, such shoals, or hills rather, of muscles that great
boats might have loaded with them, and no miss have been
made of them. Near this creek Sir Samuel Bamadiston had
a very fine seat, as also a decoy for wild ducks, and a very
noble estate; but it is divided into many branches since the
death of the antient possessor; but I proceed to the town,
which is the first in the county of Suffolk of any note this way.

Ipswich is seated, at the distance of 12 miles from Harwich,
upon the edge of the river, which taking a short turn to the
west, the town forms, there, a kind of semi-circle, or half moon
upon the bank of the river: It is very remarkable, that tho'
ships of 500 tun may upon a spring tide come up very near
this town, and many ships of that burthen have been built
there; yet the river is not navigable any farther than the town
itself, or but very little; no not for the smallest boats, nor does
the tide, which rises sometimes 13 or 14 foot, and gives them
24 foot water very near the town, flow much farther up the river
than the town, or not so much as to make it worth speaking of.

He took little notice of the town, or at least of that part of
Ipswich, who published in his wild observations on it, that
ships of 200 x tun are built there: I affirm, that I have seen a
ship of 400 tun launched at the building-yard, close to the
town; and I appeal to the Ipswich colliers (those few that
remain) belonging to this town, if several of them carrying
seventeen score of coals, which must be upward of 400 tun,
have not formerly been built here; but superficial observers,
must be superficial writers, if they write at all; and to this day,
at John's Ness, within a mile and half of the town it self, ships
of any burthen may be built and launched even at neap tides.
1 Familiar Letters, vol. x., p. 9.

SUFFOLK 43

I am much mistaken too, if since the Revolution, some very
good ships have not been built at this town, and particularly
the Melfprd or Mz"Z/0r<Z-gally, a ship of 40 guns; as the Grey-
hound frigate, a man of war of 36 to 40 guns, was at John's
Ness. But what is this towards lessening the town of Ipswich,
any more than it would be to say, they do not build men of
war, or East-India ships, or ships of 500 tun burthen, at
St. Catherines, or at Battle-Bridge in the Thames? when we
know that a mile or two lower, (viz.) at Radcliffe, Limehouse,
or Deptford, they build ships of 1000 tun, and might build
first-rate men of war too, if there was occasion; and the like
might be done in this river of Ipswich, within about two or
three miles of the town; so that it would not be at all an out-
of-the-way speaking to say, such a ship was built at Ipswich,
any more than it is to say, as they do, that the Royal Prince,
the great ship lately built for the South-Sea Company, was
London built, because she was built at Lime-house.

And why then is not Ipswich capable of building and receiving
the greatest ships in the navy, seeing they may be built and
brought up again loaden, within a mile and half of the town?

But the neighbourhood of London, which sucks the vitals
of trade in this island to itself, is the chief reason of any decay
of business in this place; and I shall in the course of these
observations, hint at it, where many good sea-ports and large
towns, tho* farther off than Ipswich, and as well fitted for
commerce, are yet swallowed up by the immense indraft of
trade to the city of London; and more decayed beyond all
comparison, than Ipswich is supposed to be; as Southampton,
Weymouth, Dartmouth, and several others which I shall speak
to in their order: And if it be otherwise at this time, with some
other towns, which are lately encreas'd in trade and navigation,
wealth, and people, while their neighbours decay, it is because
they have some particular trade or accident to trade, which is
a kind of nostrum to them, inseparable to* the place, and which
fixes there by the nature of the thing; as the herring -fishery
to Yarmouth; the coal trade to New-Castle; the Leeds doathing-
trade; the export of butter and lead, and the great corn trade
for Holland, is to Hull; the Virginia and West-India trade at
Liverpool, the Irish trade at Bristol, and the like; Thus the war
has brought a flux of business and people, and consequently of
wealth, to several places, as well as to Portsmouth, Chatham,
Plymouth, Falmouth, and others; and were any wars like those,
to continue 20 years with the Dutch, or any nation whose fleets

44 DEFOE'S TOUR

lay that way, as the Dutch do, it would be the like perhaps at
Ipswich in a few years, and at other places on the same coast.

But at this present time an occasion offers to speak in favour
of this port; namely, the Greenland fishery, lately propos'd to
be carry^d on by the South-Sea Company: On which account
I may freely advance this, without any compliment to the town
of Ipswich, no place in Britain, is equally qualified like Ipswich;
whether we respect the cheapness of building and fitting out
their ships and shalloups; also furnishing, victualling, and
providing them with all kind of stores; convenience for laying
up the ships after the voyage; room for erecting their magazines,
ware-houses, roap-walks, cooperage, &c. on the easiest terms;
and especially for the noisome cookery, which attends the
boiling their blubber, which may be on this river, (as it ought
to be) remote from any places of resort; Then their nearness to
the market for the oil when 'tis made, and, which above all,
ought to be the chief thing considered in that trade, the easiness
of their putting out to sea when they begin their voyage, in
which the same wind that carries them from the mouth of the
haven, is fair to the very seas of Greenland.

I could say much more to this point, if it were needful, and in
few words could easily prove, that Ipswich must have the pre-
ference of all the port towns of Britain, for being the best center
of the Greenland trade, if ever that trade fall into the manage-
ment of such a people as perfectly understand, and have a due
honest regard to its being managed with the best husbandry,
and to the prosperity of the undertaking in general: But whether
we shall ever arrive at so happy a time, as to recover so useful
a trade to our country, which our ancestors had the honour to
be the first undertakers of, and which has been lost only thro'
the indolence of others, and the encreasing vigilance of our
neighbours, that is not my business here to dispute.

What I have said, is only to let the world see, what improve-
ment this town and port is capable of; I cannot think, but that
Providence, which made nothing in vain, cannot have reserv'd
so useful, so convenient a port to lie vacant in the world, but
that the time will some time or other come (especially con-
sidering the improving temper of the present age) when some
peculiar beneficial business may be found out, to make the
port of Ipswich as useful to the world, and the town as flourishing,
as nature has made it proper and capable to be.

As for the town, it is true, it is but thinly inhabited, in

SUFFOLK 45

comparison of the extent of it; but to say, there are hardly
any people to be seen there, is far from being true in fact; and
whoever thinks fit to look into the churches and meeting-houses
on a Sunday, or other publick days, will find there are very
great numbers of people there: Or if he thinks fit to view the
market, and see how the large shambles, calTd Cardinal Wolsey's
Butchery, are furnish'd with meat, and the rest of the market
stock' d with other provisions, must acknowledge that it is not
for a few people that all those things are provided: A person
very curious, and on whose veracity I think I may depend,
going thro j the market in this town, told me, that he reckoned
upwards of 600 country people on horseback and on foot, with
baskets and other carriage, who had all of them brought some-
thing or other to town to sell, besides the butchers, and what
came in carts and waggons.

It happened to be my lot to be once at this town, at the
time when a very fine new ship, which was built there, for some
merchants of London, was to be launched; and if I may give
my guess at the numbers of people which appeared on the
shore, in the houses, and on the river, I believe I am much
within compass, if I say there were 20,000 people to see it; but
this is only a guess, or they might come a great way to see the
sight, or the town may be dedin'd farther since that: But a
view of the town is one of the surest rules for a gross estimate.

It is true, here is no settled manufacture: the French refugees,
when they first came over to England, began a little to take to
this place; and some merchants attempted to set up a linnen
manufacture in their favour; but it has not met with so much
success as was expected, and at present I find very little of it.
The poor people are however employ'd, as they are all over
these counties, in spinning wool for other towns where manu-
factures are settled.

THe country round Ipswich, as are all the counties so near
the coast, is applied chiefly to corn, of which a very great
quantity is continually shipped off for London; and sometimes
they load corn here for Holland, especially if the market abroad
is encouraging. They have 12 parish-churches in this town,
with three or four meetings; but there are not so many Quakers
here as at Colchester, and no Anabaptists, or Anti-pcedo
Baptists, that I could hear of, at least there is no meeting-house
of that denomination: There is one meeting-house for the
Presbyterians, one for the Independants, and one for the
Quakers; the first is as large and as fine a building of that

46 DEFOE'S TOUR

kind as most on this side of England, and the inside the best
finished of any I have seen, London not excepted; that for the
Independants is a handsome new-built building, but not so
gay or so large as the other.

There is a great deal of very good company in this town;
and tho' there are not so many of the gentry here as at Bury,
yet there are more here than in any other town in the county;
and I observed particularly, that the company you meet with
here, are generally persons well informed of the world, and
who have something very solid and entertaining in their society:
This may happen, perhaps, by their frequent conversing with
those who have been abroad, and by their having a remnant of
gentlemen and masters of ships among them, who have seen
more of the world than the people of an inland town are likely
to have seen. I take this town to be one of the most agreeable
places in England, for families who have liv'd well, but may
have suffered in our late calamities of stocks and bubbles, to
retreat to, where they may live within their own compass; and
several things indeed recommend it to such;

1. Good houses, at very easie rents.

2. An airy, clean, and well govern'd town.

3. Very agreeable and improving company almost of every
kind.

4. A wonderful plenty of all manner of provisions, whether
flesh or fish, and very good of the kind.

5. Those provisions very cheap; so that a family may live
cheaper here, than in any town in England of its bigness,
within such a small distance from London.

6. Easie passage to London, either by land or water, the
coach going through to London in a day.

The Lord Viscount Hereford, has a very fine seat and park
in this town; the house indeed is old built, but very com-
modious; 'tis call'd Christ-Church, having been as 'tis said, a
priory, or religious house in former times: The green and park
is a great addition to the pleasantness of this town, the inhabi-
tants being allowed to divert themselves there with walking,
bowling, &c.

The large spire steeple, which formerly stood upon that
they call the Tower-Church, was blown down by a great storm
of wind many years ago, and in its fall did much damage to
the church.

The government of this town is by two bailiffs , as at Yarmouth :

SUFFOLK 47

Mr. Camden says they are chosen out of twelve burgesses called
Portmen, and two justices out of twenty-four more. There has
been lately a very great struggle between the two parties for
the choice of these two magistrates, which had this amicable
conclusion, namely, that they chose one of either side; so that
neither party having the victory, 'tis to be hoped it may be a
means to allay the heats and un-neighbourly feuds, which such
things breed in towns so large as this is. They send two members
to Parliament, whereof those at this time, are Sir William
Thompson, Recorder of London, and Colonel Negus, deputy-
master of the horse to the king.

There are some things very curious to be seen here, however
some superficial writers have been ignorant of them. Dr. Beeston,
an eminent physician, began, a few years ago, a physick garden
adjoining to his house in this town; and as he is particularly
curious, and as I was told exquisitely skilTd in botanick know-
ledge, so he has been not only very diligent, but successful
too, in making a collection of rare and exotick plants, such as
are scarce to be equalTd in England.

One Mr. White, a surgeon, resides also in this town; But
before I speak of this gentleman, I must observe, that I say
nothing from personal knowledge; Tho' if I did, I have too
good an opinion of his sense to believe he would be pleased
with being flattered, or complimented in print: But I must be
true to matter of fact; This gentleman has begun a collection,
or chamber of rarities, and with good success too. I acknow-
ledge I had not the opportunity of seeing them; But I was
told there are some things very curious in it, as particularly
a sea-horse carefully preserved, and perfect in all its parts;
two Roman urns full of ashes of human bodies, and supposed
to be above 1700 years old; besides a great many valuable
medals, and antient coins. My friend who gave me this account,
and of whom I think I may say he speaks without byass, men-
tions this gentleman, Mr. White, with some warmth, as a very
valuable person in his particular employ, of a surgeon, I only
repeat his words; "Mr. White/' says he, "to whom the whole
town and country are greatly indebted and obliged to pray
for his life, is our most skilful surgeon." These I say are his
own words, and I add nothing to them but this, that 'tis happy
for a town to have such a surgeon, as it is for a surgeon to have
such a character.

The country round Ipswich, as if qualify'd on purpose to
accommodate the town for building of ships, is an inexhaustable

* C 82Q

48 DEFOE'S TOUR

store-house of timber, of which now their trade of building
ships is abated, they send very great quantities to the king's
building-yards at Chatham, which by water is so little a way,
that they often run to it from the mouth of the river at Harwich
hi one tide.

From Ipswich I took a turn into the country to Hadley,
principally to satisfy my curiosity, and see the place where
that famous martyr, and pattern of charity and religious zeal
in Queen Mary's time, Dr. Rowland Taylor, was put to death;
the inhabitants, who have a wonderful veneration for his
memory, shew the very place where the stake which he was
bound to, was set up, and they have put a stone upon it, which
no body will remove; but it is a more lasting monument to him
that he lives in the hearts of the people; I say more lasting than
a tomb of marble would be, for the memory of that good man
will certainly never be out of the poor peoples minds, as long as
this island shall retain the Protestant religion among them;
how long that may be, as things are going, and if the detestable
conspiracy of the Papists now on foot, should succeed, I will
not pretend to say.

A little to the left is Sudbury, which stands upon the River
Stour, mentioned above; a river which parts the counties of
Suffolk and Essex, and which is within these few years made
navigable to this town, tho j the navigation does not (it seems)
answer the charge, at least not to advantage.

I know nothing for which this town is remarkable, except
for being very populous and very poor. They have a great
manufacture of says and perpetuana's; and multitudes of poor
people are employ'd in working them; but the number of the
poor is almost ready to eat up the rich: However this town
sends two members to Parliament, tho' it is under no form of
government particularly to itself, other than as a village, the
head magistrate whereof is a constable.

Near adjoining to it, is a village call'd Long-Melfort, and a
very long one it is, from which I suppose it had that addition
to its name; it is full of very good houses, and, as they told me,
is richer, and has more wealthy masters of the manufacture in
it than in Sudbury itself.

Here and in the neighbourhood, are some antient families
of good note; particularly here is a fine dwelling, the antient
seat of the Cordells, whereof Sir William Cordell was Master of
the Rolls in the time of Queen Elizabeth; but the family is
now extinct; the last heir, Sir John Cordell, being killed by a

SUFFOLK 49

fall from his horse, died unmarry'd, leaving three sisters
co-heiresses to a very noble estate most of which, if not all,
is now center*d in the only surviving sister, and with her in
marriage is given to Mr. Firebrass, eldest son of Sir Basil Fire-
brass, formerly a flourishing merchant in London, but reduced
by many disasters. His family now rises by the good fortune
of his son, who proves to be a gentleman of very agreeable
parts, and well esteemed in the country.

From this part of the country I returned north-west by
Lenham, to visit St. Edmund's Bury, a town of which other
writers have talk'd very largely, and perhaps a little too much:
It is a town fam'd for its pleasant situation and wholsome air,
the Montpelier of Suffolk, and perhaps of England; this must
be attributed to the skill of the monks of those times, who
chose so beautiful a situation for the seat of their retirement;
and who built here the greatest and in its time, the most nourish-
ing monastery in all these parts of England, I mean the monas-
tery of St. Edmund the Martyr: It was, if we believe antiquity,
a house of pleasure in more antient times; or to speak more
properly, a Court of some of the Saxon or East-Angle kings;
and, as Mr. Camden says, was even then calTd a royal village;
tho* it much better merits that name now; it being the town of
all this part of England, in proportion to its bigness, most
thronged with gentry, people of the best fashion, and the most
polite conversation: This beauty and healthiness of its situation,
was no doubt the occasion which drew the clergy to settle here,
for they always chose the best places in the country to build
in, either for richness of soil, or for health and pleasure in the
situation of their religious houses.

For the like reason, I doubt not, they translated the bones
of the martyr' d King St. Edmund, to this place; for it is a
vulgar error to say he was murther'd here; his martyrdom, it
is plain was at Hoxon or Henilsdon, near Harlston, on the
Waveney, in the farthest northern verge of the county; but
Segebert, King of the East Angles, had built a religious house
in this pleasant rich part of the country; and as the monks
began to taste the pleasure of the place, they procured the
body of this saint to be remov'd hither, which soon encreas'd
the wealth and revenues of their house, by the zeal of that
day, in going on pilgrimage to the shrine of the blessed
St. Edmund.

We read however, that after this, the Danes under King
Sweno, over-running this part of the country, destroyed this

50 DEFOE'S TOUR

monastery and burnt it to the ground, with the church and
town; but see the turn religion gives to things in the world;
His son King Canutus, at first a pagan and a tyrant, and the
most cruel ravager of all that crew, coming to turn Christian;
and being touch' d in conscience for the soul of his father, in
having robb'd God and His holy martyr St. Edmund, sacri-
legiously destroying the church, and plundering the monastery;
I say, touch'd with remorse, and, as the monks pretend terrify'd
with a vision of St. Edmund appearing to him, he rebuilt the
house, the church, and the town also, and very much added
to the wealth of the abbot and his fraternity, offering his crown
at the feet of St. Edmund, giving the house to the monks, town
and all; so that they were absolute lords of the town, and
governed it by their steward for many ages. He also gave them
a great many good lordships, which they enjoyM till the general
suppression of abbies, in the time of Henry VIII.

But I am neither writing the history, or searching the
antiquity, of the abbey, or town, my business is the present
state of the place.

The abbey is demolished; its ruins are all that is to be seen
of its glory: Out of the old building, two very beautiful churches
are built, and serve the two parishes, into which the town is
divided, and they stand both in one church-yard. Here it was,
in the path-way between these two churches, that a tragical
and almost unheard of act of barbarity was committed, which
made the place less pleasant for some time, than it us'd to be,
when Arundel Coke, Esq; a Barrister at Law, of very antient
family, attempted, with the assistance of a barbarous assassin,
to murther in cold blood, and in the arms of hospitality, Edward
Crisp, Esq; his brother-in-law, leading him out from his own
house, where he had invited him, his wife and children, to
supper: I say, leading him out in the night, on pretence of going
to see some Mend that was known to them both; but in this
church-yard, giving a signal to the assassin he had hir'd, he
attack'd him with a hedge bill, and cut him, as one might say,
almost in pieces; and when they did not doubt of his being dead,
they left him: His head and face was so mangled, that it may be
said to be next to a miracle that he was not quite killed: Yet so
Providence directed for the exemplary punishment of the
assassins, that the gentleman recover*d to detect them, who,
(tho 1 he out-lived the assault) were both executed as they
deserv'd, and Mr. Crisp is yet alive. They were condemned on the
statute for defacing and dismembring, called the Coventry Act.

SUFFOLK 51

But this accident does not at all lessen the pleasure and
agreeable delightful shew of the town of Bury; it is crouded
with nobility and gentry, and all sorts of the most agreeable
company; and as the company invites, so there is the appear-
ance of pleasure upon the very situation; and they that live
at Bury, are supposed to live there for the sake of it.

The Lord Jermin, afterwards Lord Dover, and since his
lordship's decease, Sir Robert Davers, enjoyed the most delicious
seat of Rushbrook, near this town.

The present Members of Parliament for this place are, Jermyn
Davers, and James Reynolds, Esquires.

Mr, Harvey, afterwards created Lord Harvey, by King
William, and since that, made Earl of Bristol by King George,
hVd many years in this town, leaving a noble and pleasantly
situated house in Lincolnshire, for the more agreeable living
on a spot so compleatly qualified for a life of delight as this
of Bury.

The Duke of Grafton, now Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, has
also a stately house at Euston, near this town, which he enjoys
in right of his mother, daughter to the Earl of Arlington, one of
the chief ministers of State in the reign of King Charles II. and
who made the second letter in the word CABAL; a word
form'd by that famous satirerist Andrew Marvell, to represent
the five heads of the politicks of that time, as the word
SMECTYMNUS was on a former occasion.

I shall believe nothing so scandalous of the ladies of this
town and the comity round it, as a late writer 1 insinuates:
That the ladies round the country appear mighty gay and
agreeable at the tune of the fair in this town, I acknowledge;
one hardly sees such a show in any part of the world; but to
suggest they come hither as to a market, is so coarse a jest that
the gentlemen that wait on them hither, (for they rarely come
but in good company) ought to resent and correct him for it.

It is true, Bury-Fair, like Bartholomew-Fair, is a fair for
diversion, more than for trade; and it may be a fair for toys
and for trinkets, which the ladies may think fit to lay out some
of their money in, as they see occasion. But to judge from thence,
that the knights daughters of Norfolk, Cambridge-shire, and
Suffolk, that is to say, for it cannot be understood any otherwise,
the daughters of all the gentry of the three counties, come

1 Familiar Letters, Vol. x, p. 7. He says, An infinite number of knights
daughters from Norfolk, Cambridge, and Suffolk, come here to market;
intimating that they come to be bought, or to buy.

52 DEFOE'S TOUR

hither to be pick'd up, is a way of speaking I never before heard
any author have the assurance to make use of in print.

The assemblee he justly commends for the bright appearance
of the beauties; but with a sting in the tayl of this compli-
ment, where he says, They seldom end without some considerable
match or intrigue; and yet he owns, that during the fair, these
assemblies are held every night. Now that these fine ladies
go intriguing every night, and that too after the comedy is
done, which is after the fair and raffling is over for the day;
so that it must be very late: This is a terrible character for the
ladies of Bury, and intimates in short, that most of them are
whores, which is a horrid abuse upon the whole country.

Now, tho' I like not the assemblies at all, and shall in another
place give them something of their due; yet having the oppor-
tunity to see the fair at Bury, and to see that there were indeed
abundance of the finest ladies, or as fine as any in Britain, yet
I must own, the number of the ladies at the comedy, or at the
assemblee, is no way equal to the number that are seen in the
town, much less are they equal to the whole body of the ladies
in the three counties, and I must also add, that tho* it is far
from true, that all that appear at the assemblee, are there for
matches or intrigues, yet I will venture to say, that they are
not the worst of the ladies who stay away; neither are they the
fewest in number, or the meanest in beauty, but just the con-
trary; and I do not at all doubt, but that the scandalous liberty
some take at those assemblies, will in time bring them out of
credit with the virtuous part of the sex here, as it has done
already in Kent and other places; and that those ladies who
most value their reputation, will be seen less there than they
have been; for thp' the institution of them has been innocent
and virtuous, the ill use of them, and the scandalous behaviour
of some people at them, will in time arm virtue against them,
and they will be lay'd down as they have been set up, without
much satisfaction.

But the beauty of this town consists hi the number of gentry
who dwell in and near it, the polite conversation among them;
the affluence and plenty they live in; the sweet air they breathe
in, and the pleasant country they have to go abroad in.

Here is no manufacturing in this town, or but very little,
except spinning; the chief trade of the place depending upon
the gentry who live there, or near it, and who cannot fail to
cause trade enough by the expence of their families and
equipages, among the people of a county town. They have

SUFFOLK 53

but a very small river, or rather but a very small branch of a
small river, at this town, which runs from hence to Milden-
Hall, on the edge of the Fens. However, the town and gentle-
men about, have been at the charge, or have so encourag'd the
engineer who was at the charge, that they have made this
river navigable to the said Milden-Hall, from whence there is
a navigable dyke, calTd Milden-Hall Dreyn, which goes into
the River Ouse, and so to Lynn; so that all their coal and wine,
iron, lead, and other heavy goods, are brought by water from
Lynn, or from London, by the way of Lynn, to the great ease
of the tradesmen.

This town is famous for two great events, one was that in
the year 1447, & the 25th year of Henry the VTth, a Parliament
was held here.

The other was, That at the meeting of this Parliament, the
great Humphry, Duke of Glocester, regent of the kingdom,
during the absence of King Henry the Vth, and the minority
of Henry the "VTth, and to his last hour, the safeguard of the
whole nation, and darling of the people, was basely murthered
here; by whose death, the gate was opened to that dreadful
war between the Houses of Lancaster and York, which ended
in the confusion of that very race, who are supposed to have
contrived that murther.

From St. Edmund's Bury I returned by Stow-Market and
Needham, to Ipswich, that I might keep as near the coast as
was proper to my design' d circuit or journey; and from Ipswich,
to visit the sea again, I went to Woodbridge, and from thence
to Orford, on the sea-side.

Woodbridge has nothing remarkable, but that it is a con-
siderable market for butter and corn to be exported to London;
for now begins that part which is ordinarily called High-Suffolk;
which being a rich soil, is for a long tract of ground, wholly
employed in dayries; and again famous for the best butter,
and perhaps the worst cheese, in England: The butter is
barrelled, or often pickled up in small casks, and sold, not in
London only, but I have known a firkin of Suffolk butter sent
to the West-Indies, and brought back to England again, and
has been perfectly good and sweet, as at first.

The port for the shipping off their Suffolk butter is chiefly
Woodbridge, which for that reason is full of corn-factors, and
butter-factors, some of whom are very considerable merchants.

From hence turning down to the shore, we see Orford Ness,
a noted point of land for the guide of the colliers and coasters,

54 DEFOE'S TOUR

and a good shelter for them to ride under, when a strong north-
east wind blows and makes a foul shore on the coast.

South of the Ness is Orford Haven, being the mouth of two
little rivers meeting together; 'tis a very good harbour for small
vessels, but not capable of receiving a ship of burthen.

Orford was once a good town, but is decay'd, and as it stands
on the land-side of the river, the sea daily throws up more
land to it, and falls off itself from it, as if it was resolved to
disown the place, and that it should be a sea port no longer.

A little farther lies Albro', as thriving, tho' without a port,
as the other is decaying, with a good river in the front of it.

There are some gentlemen's seats up farther from the sea,
but very few upon the coast.

From Albro' to Dunwich, there are no towns of note; even
this town seems to be in danger of being swallowed up; for
fame reports, that once they had fifty churches in the town;
I saw but one left, and that not half full of people.

This town is a testimony of the decay of publick things,
things of the most durable nature; and as the old poet
expresses it,

By numerous examples we may see,
That towns and cities die, as well as we.

The ruins of Carthage, or the great city of Jerusalem, or
of antient Rome, are not at all wonderful to me; the ruins of
Nineveh, which are so entirely sunk, as that 'tis doubtful where
the city stood; the ruins of Babylon, or the great PersepoHs,
and many capital cities, which time and the change of monarchies
have overthrown; these, I say, are not at all wonderful, because
being the capitals of great and flourishing kingdoms,, where
those kingdoms were overthrown, the capital cities necessarily
fell with them; But for a private town, a sea-port, and a town of
commerce, to decay, as it were of itself (for we never read of
Dunwich being plundered, or ruin'd, by any disaster, at least
not of late years); this I must confess, seems owing to nothing
but to the fate of things, by which we see that towns, kings,
countries, families, and persons, have all their elevation, their
medium, their declination, and even their destruction in the
womb of time, and the course of nature. It is true, this town
is manifestly decayed by the invasion of the waters, and as
other towns seem sufferers by the sea, or the tide withdrawing
from their ports, such as Orford just now named; Winchelsea
in Kent, and the like: So this town is, as it were, eaten up by

SUFFOLK 55

the sea, as above; and the still encroaching ocean seems to
threaten it with a fatal immersion in a few years more.

Yet Dunwich, however ruin'd, retains some share of trade,
as particularly for the shipping off butter, cheese, and com,
which is so great a business in this county, and it employs a
great many people and ships also; and this port lies right
against the particular part of the county for butter, as Fram-
kngham, Halsted, &c. Also a very great quantity of corn is
bought up hereabout for the London market; for I shall still
touch that point, how all the counties in England contribute
something towards the subsistence of the great city of London,
of which the butter here is a very considerable article; as also
coarse cheese, which I mentioned before, us'd chiefly for the
king's ships.

Hereabouts they begin to talk of herrings, and the fishery;
and we find in the antient records, that this town, which was
then equal to a large city; paid, among other tribute to the
Government, 50000 of herrings. Here also, and at Swole, or
Southole, the next sea-port, they cure sprats in the same
manner as they do herrings at Yarmouth; that is to say, speaking
in their own language, they make red sprats; or to speak good
English, they make sprats red.

It is remarkable, that this town is now so much washed away
by the sea, that what little trade they have, is carry*d on by
Walderswick, a little town near Swole, the vessels coming in
there, because the ruines of Dunwich make the shore there
unsafe and uneasie to the boats; from whence the northern
coasting seamen a rude verse of their own using, and I suppose
of their own making; as follows,

Swoul and Dun-mob, and Walderswick,
All go in at one lousie creek.

This lousie creek, in short, is a little river at Swoul, which our
late famous atlas-maker calls a good harbour for ships, and
rendezvous of the royal navy; but that by the bye; the author
it seems knew no better.

From Dunwich, we came to Southwold, the town above-
named; this is a small port-town upon the coast, at the mouth
of a little river calPd the Blith: I found no business the people
here were employ'd in, but the fishery, as above, for herrings
and sprats; which they cure by the help of smoak, as they do
at Yarmouth.

There is but one church in this town, but it is a very large

56 DEFOE'S TOUR

one and well-built, as most of the churches in this county are,
and of impenetrable flint; indeed there is no occasion for its
being so large, for staying there one Sabbath-Day, I was sur-
prized to see an extraordinary large church, capable of receiving
five or six thousand people, and but twenty-seven in it besides
the parson and the clerk; but at the same time the meeting-
house of the Dissenters was full to the very doors, having, as
I guess'd from 6 to 800 people in it.

This town is made famous for a very great engagement at
sea, in the year 1672, between the English and Dutch fleets,
in the bay opposite to the town; in which, not to be partial
to ourselves, the English fleet was worsted; and the brave
Montague Earl of Sandwich, admiral under the Duke of York,
lost his life: The ship Royal Prince, carrying 100 guns, in which
he was, and which was under him, commanded by Sir Edward
Spragg, was burnt, and several other ships lost, and about 600
seamen; part of those kill'd in the fight, were, as I was told,
brought on shore here and buried in the church-yard of this
town, as others also were at Ipswich.

At this town in particular, and so at all the towns on this
coast, from Orford-Ness to Yarmouth, is the ordinary place
where our summer friends the swallows, first land when they
come to visit us; and here they may be said to embark for their
return, when they go back into warmer climates; and, as
I think the following remark, tho' of so trifling a circumstance,
may be both instructing, as well as diverting, it may be very-
proper in this place. The case is this; I was some years before
at this place, at the latter end of the year (viz.) about the
beginning of October, and lodging in a house that looked into
the church-yard, I observ'd in the evening an unusual multi-
tude of birds sitting on the leads of the church; curiosity led
me to go nearer to see what they were, and I found they were
all swallows; that there was such an infinite number that they
covered the whole roof of the church, and of several houses
near, and perhaps might, of more houses which I did not see;
this led me to enquire of a grave gentleman whom I saw near
me, what the meaning was of such a prodigious multitude of
swallows sitting there; SIR, says he, turning towards the
sea, you may see the reason, the wind is off sea. I did not seem
fully informed by that expression; so he goes on: I perceive,
sir, says he, you are a stranger to it; you must then understand
first, that this is the season of the year when the swallows, their
food here failing, begin to leave us, and return to the country,

SUFFOLK 57

where-ever it be, from whence I suppose they came; and this
being the nearest to the coast of Holland, they come here to
embark; this he said smiling a little; and now, sir, says he, the
weather being too calm, or the wind contrary, they are waiting
for a gale, for they are all wind-bound.

This was more evident to me, when in the morning I found
the wind had come about to the north-west in the night, and
there was not one swallow to be seen, of near a million, which
I believe was there the night before.

How those creatures know that this part of the island of
Great-Britain is the way to their home, or the way that they
are to go; that this very point is the nearest cut over, or even
that the nearest cut is best for them, that we must leave to
the naturalists to determin, who insist upon it, that brutes
cannot think.

Certain it is, that the swallows neither come hither for warm
weather, nor retire from cold, the thing is of quite another
nature; they, like the shoals of fish in the sea, pursue their
prey; they are a voracious creature, they feed flying; their food
is found in the air, viz. the insects; of which in our summer
evenings, in damp and moist places, the air is full; they come
hither in the summer, because our air is fuller of fogs and
damps than in other countries, and for that reason, feeds
great quantities of insects; if the air be hot and dry, the gnats
die of themselves, and even the swallows will be found famish'd
for want, and fall down dead out of the air, their food being
taken from them: In like manner, when cold weather comes
in, the insects all die, and then of necessity, the swallows
quit us, and follow their food where-ever they go; this
they do in the manner I have mentioned above; for some-
times they are seen to go off in vast flights like a cloud;
And sometimes again, when the wind grows fair, they go
away a few and a few, as they come, not staying at all upon
the coast.

Note, This passing and re-passing of the swallows, is observM
no where so much, that I have heard of, or in but few other
places, except on this eastern coast; namely, from above
Harwich to the east point of Norfolk, calTd Winterton Ness,
north; which is all right against Holland; we know nothing
of them any farther north, the passage of the sea being, as
I suppose, too broad from Flambro' Head, and the shoar of
Holderness in Yorkshire, &c.

I find very little remarkable on this side of Suffolk, but what

58 DEFOE'S TOUR

is on the sea shore as above; the inland country is that which
they properly call High-Suffolk, and is full of rich feeding-
grounds and large farms, mostly employ'd in dayries for making
the Suffolk butter and cheese, of which I have spoken already:
Among these rich grounds stand some market-towns, tho' not
of very considerable note; such as Framlingham, where was
once a royal castle, to which Queen Mary retir'd, when the
Northumberland faction, in behalf of the Lady Jane, en-
deavourM to supplant her; and it was this part of Suffolk
where the Gospellers, as they were then called, prefer* d their
loyalty to their religion, and complimented the popish line
at expence of their share of the Reformation; but they paid
dear for it, and their successors have learn'd better politicks
since.

In these parts are also several good market-towns, some in
this county, and some in the other, as Becles, Bungay, Harlston,
&c. all on the edge of the River Waveney, which parts here the
counties of Suffolk and Norfolk: And here in a bye-place, and
out of common remark, lies the antient town of Hoxon, famous
for being the place where St. Edmund was martyr'd, for whom
so many cells and shrines have been set up, and monasteries
built; and in honour of whom, the famous monastery of
St. Edmund's Bury above-mentioned, was founded, which
most people erroneously think was the place where the said
murther was committed.

Besides the towns mentioned above, there are Halesworth,
Saxmundham, Debenham, Aye, or Eye, all standing in this
eastern side of Suffolk; in which, as I have said, the whole
country is employ'd in dayries, or in feeding of cattle.

This part of England is also remarkable for being the first
where the feeding and fattening of cattle, both sheep as well as
black cattle with turnips, was first practised in England, which
is made a very great part of the improvement of their lands to
this day; and from whence the practice is spread over most of
the east and south parts of England, to the great enriching
of the farmers, and encrease of fat cattle: And tho' some have
objected against the goodness of the flesh thus fed with turnips,
and have fansied it would taste of the root; yet upon experience
'tis found, that at market there is no difference nor can they
that buy, single out one joynt of mutton from another by the
taste: So that the complaint which our nice palates at first
made, begins to cease of itself; and a very great quantity of
beef, and mutton also, is brought every year, and every week

SUFFOLK 59

to London, from this side of England, and much more than was
formerly known to be fed there.

I can't omit, however little it may seem, that this county of
Suffolk is particularly famous for furnishing the city of London
and all the counties round, with turkeys; and that 'tis thought,
there are more turkeys bred in this county, and the part of
Norfolk that adjoins to it, than in all the rest of England,
especially for sale; tho' this may be reckoned, as I say above,
but a trifling thing to take notice of in these remarks; yet, as
I have hinted, that I shall observe, how London is in general
supplied with all its provisions from the whole body of the
nation, and how every part of the island is engaged in some
degree or other of that supply; On this account I could not
omit it; nor will it be found so inconsiderable an article as some
may imagin, if this be true which I received an account of from
a person living on the place, (viz.) That they have counted
300 droves of turkeys (for they drive them all in droves on
foot) pass in one season over Stratford-Bridge on the River
Stour, which parts Suffolk from Essex, about six miles from
Colchester on the road from Ipswich to London. These droves,
as they say, generally contain from three hundred to a thousand
each drove; so that one may suppose them to contain 500
one with another, which is 150000 in all; and yet this is one
of the least passages, the numbers which travel by New
Market-Heath, and the open country and the forest, and
also the numbers that come by Sudbury and Clare, being
many more.

For the further supplies of the markets of London with
poultry, of which these countries particularly abound: They
have within these few years found it practicable to make the
geese travel on foot too, as well as the turkeys; and a pro-
digious number are brought up to London in droves from the
farthest parts of Norfolk; even from the fenn-country, about
Lynn, Downham, Wisbich, and the Washes; as also from all
the east-side of Norfolk and Suffolk, of whom 'tis very frequent
now to meet droves, with a thousand, sometimes two thousand
in a drove: They begin to drive them generally in August, by
which time the harvest is almost over, and the geese may feed
in the stubbles as they go. Thus they hold on to the end of
October, when the roads begin to be too stiff and deep for their
broad feet and short leggs to march in.

Besides these methods of driving these creatures on foot,
they have of late also invented a new method of carriage, being

60 DEFOE'S TOUR

carts formed on purpose, with four stories or stages, to put the
creatures in one above another, by which invention one cart
will carry a very great number; and for the smoother going,
they drive with two horses a-breast, like a coach, so quartering
the road for the ease of the gentry that thus ride; changing
horses they travel night and day; so that they bring the fowls
70, 80, or 100 miles in two days and one night: The horses in
this new-fashion'd voiture go two a-breast, as above, but no
perch below as in a coach, but they are fastened together by a
piece of wood lying cross-wise upon their necks, by which
they are kept even and together, and the driver sits on the top
of the cart, like as in the publick carriages for the army, &c.

In this manner they hurry away the creatures alive, and
infinite numbers are thus carried to London every year. This
method is also particular for the carrying young turkeys, or
turkey-poults in their season, which are valuable, and yield
a good price at market; as also for live chickens in the dear
seasons; of all which a very great number are brought in this
manner to London, and more prodigiously out of this country
than any other part of England, which is the reason of my
speaking of it here.

In this part, which we call High-Suffolk, there are not so
many families of gentry or nobility plac'd, as in the other
side of the country: But 'tis observ'd that tho' their seats are
not so frequent here, their estates are; and the pleasure of
West Suffolk is much of it supported by the wealth of High-
Suffolk; for the richness of the lands, and application of the
people to all kinds of improvement, is scarce credible; also
the farmers are so very considerable, and their farms and
dayries so large, that 'tis very frequent for a farmer to have
a thousand pounds stock upon his farm in cows only.

NORFOLK

From High-Suffolk, I pass'd the Waveney into Norfolk, near
Schole-Inn; in my passage I saw at Redgrave, (the seat of the
family) a most exquisite monument of Sir John Holt, Knight,
late lord chief justice of the KingVBench, several years, and
one of the most eminent lawyers of his time. One of the heirs
of the family is now building a fine seat about a mile on the
south-side of Ipswich, near the road.

NORFOLK 61

The epitaph, or inscription on this monument, is as follows.

M. S.

D. JOHANNIS HOLT, Equitis Aur

Totras Angliae in Banco Regis

per 21 Annos continues

Capitalis Justitiarii
Gulielmo Regi Annasq; Reginae

Consiliarii perpetui:

Libertatis ac Legum Anglicorum

Assertoris, Vindicis, Custodis,

Vigilis Acris & Intrepid!,

Rolandus Frater Vnicus & Haeres

Optime de se Merito

posuit,
Die Martis Vto. 1709 Sublatus est

ex Oculis nostris
Natus 30 Decembris, Anno 1642.

When we come into Norfolk, we see a face of diligence spread
over the whole country; the vast manufactures carry'd on (in
chief) by the Norwich weavers, employs all the country round in
spinning yarn for them; besides many thousand packs of yarn
which they receive from other countries, even from as far as
Yorkshire, and Westmoreland, of which I shall speak in its place.

This side of Norfolk is very populous, and throng'd with great
and spacious market-towns, more and larger than any other
part of England so far from London, except Devonshire, and
the West-riding of Yorkshire; for example, between the frontiers
of Suffolk and the city of Norwich on this side, which is not above
22 miles in breadth, are the following market-towns, viz.

Thetford, Hingham, Harleston,

Dis, West Deerham, E. Deerham,

Harling, Attleboro', Watton,

Bucknam, Windham, Loddon, &c.

Most of these towns are very populous and large; but that
which is most remarkable is, that the whole country round
them is so interspers'd with villages, and those villages so large,
and so full of people, that they are equal to market-towns in
other counties; in a word, they render this eastern part of
Norfolk exceeding full of inhabitants.

An eminent weaver of Norwich, gave me a scheme of their
trade on this occasion, by which, calculating from the number

62 DEFOE'S TOUR

of looms at that time employ'd in the city of Norwich only,
besides those employ'd in other towns in the same county, he
made it appear very plain, that there were 120000 people
employ'd in the woollen and silk and wool manufactures of
that city only, not that the people all lived in the city, tho'
Norwich is a very large and populous city too: But I say, they
were employ'd for spinning the yarn used for such goods as
were all made in that city. This account is curious enough, and
very exact, but it is too long for the compass of this work.

This shews the wonderful extent of the Norwich manufacture,
or stuff-weaving trade, by which so many thousands of families
are maintained. Their trade indeed felt a very sensible decay,
and the cries of the poor began to be very loud, when the wearing
of painted callicoes was grown to such an height in England, as
was seen about two or three years ago; but an Act of Parliament
having been obtained, tho' not without great struggle, in the
years 1720, and 1721, for prohibiting the use and wearing of
callico's, the stuff trade reviv'd incredibly; and as I pass'd this
part of the country in the year 1723, the manufacturers assured
me, that there was not in all the eastern and middle part of
Norfolk, any hand, unemployed, if they would work; and that
the very children after four or five years of age, could every one
earn their own bread. But I return to speak of the villages and
towns in the rest of the county; I shall come to the city of
Norwich by itself.

This throng of villages continues thro' all the east part of
the county, which is of the greatest extent, and where the
manufacture is chiefly carry'd on: If any part of it be waste
and thin of inhabitants, it is the west part, drawing a line from
about Brand, or Brandon, south, to Walsingham, north. This
part of the country indeed is full of open plains, and somewhat
sandy and barren, and feeds great flocks of good sheep: But put
it all together, the county of Norfolk has the most people in
the least tract of land of any county in England, except about
London, and Exon, and the West-Riding of Yorkshire, as above.

Add to this, that there is no single county in England, except
as above, that can boast of three towns so populous, so rich,
and so famous for trade and navigation, as in this county:
By these three towns, I mean the city of Norwich, the towns
of Yarmouth and Lynn; besides, that it has several other
sea-ports of very good trade, as Wisbich, Wells, Burnham,
dye, &c.

NORWICH is the capital of all the county, and the center of

NORFOLK 63

all the trade and manufactures which I have just mention'd;
an antient, large, rich, and populous city: If a stranger was
only to ride thro' or view the city of Norwich for a day, he
would have much more reason to think there was a town
without inhabitants, than there is really to say so of Ipswich;
but on the contrary, if he was to view the city, either on a
Sabbath-day, or on any publick occasion, he would wonder
where all the people could dwell, the multitude is so great:
But the case is this; the inhabitants being all busie at their
manufactures, dwell in their garrets at their looms, and in
their combing-shops, so they call them, t^stmg-mills, and
other work-houses; almost all the works they are employ 'd
in, being done within doors. There are in this city thirty-two
parishes besides the cathedral, and a great many meeting-
houses of Dissenters of all denominations. The pubh'ck edifices
are chiefly the castle, antient and decayed, and now for many
years past made use of for a jayl. The Duke of Norfolk's house
was formerly kept well, and the gardens preserved for the
pleasure and diversion of the citizens, but since feeling too
sensibly the sinking circumstances of that once glorious family,
who were the first peers and hereditary earl-marshals of England.

The walls of this city are reckon'd three miles in circumference,
taking in more ground than the city of London; but much of
that ground lying open in pasture-fields and gardens; nor does
it seem to be, like some antient places, a decayed declining town,
and that the walls mark out its antient dimensions; for we do
not see room to suppose that it was ever larger or more populous
than it is now: But the walls seem to be placed, as if they
expected that the city would in time encrease sufficiently to
fill them up with buildings.

The cathedral of this city is a fine fabrick, and the spire-
steeple very high and beautiful; it is not antient, the bishop's
see having been first at Thetford; from whence it was not
translated hither till the twelfth century; yet the church has
so many antiquities in it, that our late great scholar and
physician, Sir Tho. Brown, thought it worth his while to write
a whole book to collect the monuments and inscrpitions in
this church, to which I refer the reader.

The River Yare runs through this city, and is navigable thus
far without the help of any art, (that is to say, without locks
or stops) and being encreas'd by other waters, passes afterwarde
thro' a long tract of the richest meadows, and the largest, taks
them all together, that are any where in England, lying for

64 DEFOE'S TOUR

thirty miles in length, from this city to Yarmouth, including
the return of the said meadows on the bank of the Waveney
south, and on the River Thyrn, north.

Here is one thing indeed strange in itself, and more so, in
that history seems to be quite ignorant of the occasion of it.
The River Waveney is a considerable river, and of a deep and
full channel, navigable for large barges as high as Beccles; it
runs for a course of about fifty miles, between the two counties
of Suffolk and Norfolk, as a boundary to both; and pushing
on, tho' with a gentle stream, towards the sea, no one would
doubt, but, that when they see the river growing broader and
deeper, and going directly towards the sea, even to the edge
of the beach; that is to say, within a mile of the main ocean;
no stranger, I say, but would expect to see its entrance into
the sea at that place, and a noble harbour for ships at the
mouth of it; when on a sudden, the land rising high by the
sea-side, crosses the head of the river, like a dam, checks the
whole course of it, and it returns, bending its course west,
for two miles, or thereabouts; and then turning north, thro'
another long course of meadows (J ^ 11 ^ to those just now
mention'd) seeks out the River Yare, that it may join its water
with her's, and find their way to the sea together.

Some of our historians tell a long fabulous story of this
river's being once open, and a famous harbour for ships belong-
ing to the town of Leostof adjoining; But that the town of
Yarmouth envying the prosperity of the said town of Leostof,
made war upon them; and that after many bloody battles, as
well by sea as by land, they came at last to a decisive action
at sea with their respective fleets, and the victory fell to the
Yarmouth men, the Leostof fleet being overthrown and utterly
destroyed; and that upon this victory, the Yarmouth men
either actually did stop up the mouth of the said river, or oblig'd
the vanquish'd Leostof men to do it themselves, and bound
them never to attempt to open it again.

I believe my share of this story, and I recommend no more of
it to the reader; adding, that I see no authority for the relation,
neither do the relators agree either in the time of it, or in the
particulars of the fact; that is to say, in whose reign, or under
what government all this happened; in what year, and the
like: So T satisfy my self with transcribing the matter of fact,
and then leave it as I find it.

In this vast tract of meadows are fed a prodigious number of
bkck cattle, which are said to be fed up for the fattest beef,

NORFOLK 65

tho* not the largest in England; and the quantity is so great,
as that they not only supply the city of Norwich, the town of
Yarmouth, and county adjacent, but send great quantities of
them weekly in all the winter season, to London.

And this in particular is worthy remark, That the gross of
all the Scots cattle which come yearly into England, are brought
hither, being brought to a small village lying north of the city
of Norwich, calPd St. Faiths, where the Norfolk grasiers go and
buy them.

These Scots runts, so they call them, coming out of the cold
and barren mountains of the Highlands in Scotland, feed so
eagerly on the rich pasture in these marshes, that they thrive
in an unusual manner, and grow monstrously fat; and the beef
is so _ delicious for taste, that the inhabitants prefer 'em to the
English cattle, which are much larger and fairer to look at, and
they may very well do so: Some have told me, and I believe
with good judgment, that there are above 40,000 of these
Scots cattle fed in this country every year, and most of them
in the said marshes between Norwich, Beccles, and Yarmouth.

YARMOUTH is an antient town, much older than Norwich;
and at present, tho' not standing on so much ground, yet
better built; much more compleat; for number of inhabitants,
not much inferior; and for wealth, trade, and advantage of its
situation, infinitely superior to Norwich.

It is plac'd on a peninsula between the River Yare and the
sea; the two last lying parallel to one another, and the town
in the middle: The river lies on the west-side of the town, and
being^grown very large and deep, by a conflux of all the rivers
on this side the county, forms the haven; and the town facing
to the west also, and open to the river, makes the finest key
in England, if not in Europe, not inferior even to that of
Marseilles itself.

The ships ride here so close, and as it were, keeping up one
another, with their head-fasts on shore, that for half a mile
together, they go cross the stream with their bolsprits over the
land, their bowes, or heads, touching the very wharf; so that
one may walk from ship to ship as on a floating bridge, all
along by the shore-side: The key reaching from the draw-
bridge almost to the south-gate, is so spacious and wide, that
in some places 'tis near one hundred yards from the houses
to the wharf. In this pleasant and agreeable range of houses
are some very magnificent buildings, and among the rest, the

66 DEFOE'S TOUR

custom-house and town-hall, and some merchants houses,
which look like little palaces, rather than the dwelling-houses
of private men.

The greatest defect of this beautiful town, seems to be,
that tho' it is very rich and encreasing in wealth and trade,
and consequently in people, there is not room to enlarge the
town by building; which would be certainly done much more
than it is, but that the river on the land-side prescribes them,
except at the north end without the gate; and even there the
land is not very agreeable: But had they had a larger space
within the gates, there would before now, have been many
spacious streets of noble fine buildings erected, as we see is
done in some other thriving towns in England, as at Liverpool,
Manchester, Bristol, Frome, &c.

The key and the harbour of this town during the fishing-fair,
as they call it, which is every Michaelmas, one sees the land
cover* d with people, and the river with barks and boats, busy
day and night, landing and carrying oS the herrings, which
they catch here in such prodigious quantities, that it is incredible.
I happen' d to be there during their fishing-fair, when I told,
in one tide, one hundred and ten barks and fishing vessels
coming up the river, all loaden with herrings, and all taken
the night before; and this was besides what was brought on
shore on the Dean, (that is the seaside of the town) by open
boats, which they call cobles, 1 and which often bring in two
or three last 2 of fish at a time. The barks 8 often bring in ten
last a piece.

This fishing-fair begins on Michaelmas Day, and lasts all the
month of October, by which time the herrings draw off to sea,
shoot their spawn, and are no more fit for the merchants
business; at least not those that are taken thereabouts.

The quantity of herrings that are catch' d in this season are
diversly accounted for; some have said, that the towns of
Yarmouth and Leostof only, have taken forty thousand last
in a season: I will not venture to confirm that report; but this
I have heard the merchants themselves say, (viz.) That they

1 The cobles are open boats, which come from the north, from Scarbro',
Whitby, &c., and come to Yarmouth to let themselves out to fish for the
merchants during the fair-time.

* Note, a last is ten barrels, each barrel containing a thousand herrings.

* The barks come from the coast of Kent and Sussex, as from Foulkston,
Dover, and Rye in Kent, and from Brithelmston in Sussex, and let them-
selves out to fish for the merchants during the said fair, as the cobles do
from the north.

NORFOLK 67

have cur'd, that is to say, hanged and dry'd in the smoak
40,000 barrels of merchantable redherrings in one season,
which is in itself (tho 7 far short of the other) yet a very con-
siderable article; and it is to be added, that this is besides all
the herrings consumed in the country towns of both those
populous counties, for thirty miles from the sea, whither very
great quantities are carry'd every tide during the whole season.

But this is only one branch of the great trade carry'd on in
this town; Another part of this commerce, is in the exporting
these herrings after they are cur'd; and for this their merchants
have a great trade to Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and
Venice; as also to Spain and Portugal, also exporting with their
herring very great quantities of worsted stuffs, and stuffs
made of silk and worsted; camblets, &c. the manufactures of
the neighbouring city of Norwich, and the places adjacent.

Besides this, they carry on a very considerable trade with
Holland, whose opposite neighbours they are; and a vast
quantity of woollen manufactures they export to the Dutch
every year. Also they have a fishing trade to the north-seas for
white fish, which from the place are called the North-Sea cod.

They have also a considerable trade to Norway, and to the
Baltick, from whence they bring back deals, and fir-timber,
oaken plank, baulks, sparrs, oars, pitch, tar, hemp, flax, spruce
canvas, and sail-cloth; with all manner of naval stores, which
they generally have a consumption for in their own port, where
they build a very great number of ships every year, besides
re-fitting and repairing the old.

Add to this the coal trade between Newcastle and the river of
Thames, in which they are so improved of late years, that they
have now a greater share of it than any other town in England;
and have quite work'd the Ipswich men out of it, who had
formerly the chief share of the colliery in their hands.

For the carrying on all these trades, they must have a very
great number of ships, either of their own, or employed by
them; and it may in some measure be judg'd of by this, That
in the year 1697, I had an account from the town register,
that there was then 1123 sail of ships using the sea, and belonged
to the town, besides such ships as the merchants of Yarmouth
might be concern' d in, and be part-owners of, belonging to
any other ports.

To all this I must add, without compliment to the town, or
to the people, that the merchants, and even the generality of
traders of Yarmouth, have a very good reputation in trade,

68 DEFOE'S TOUR

as well abroad as at home, for men of fair and honourable
dealing, punctual and just in their performing their engage-
ments, and in discharging commissions; and their seamen, as
well masters as mariners, are justly esteem'd among the ablest
and most expert navigators in England.

This town however populous and large, was ever contained
in one parish, and had but one church; but within these two
years they have built another very fine church, near the south-
end of the town. The old church is dedicated to St. Nicholas,
and was built by that famous Bishop of Norwich, Will. Herbert,
who flourished in the reign of William II, and Hen. I. William
of Malmsbury calls him Virpecuniosus] he might have called him
Vir Pecuniosissimus, considering the times he lived in, and the
works of charity and munificence, which he has left as witnesses
of his immense riches; for he built the cathedral church; the
priory for sixty monks; the bishop's palace, and the parish-
church of St. Leonard, all in Norwich; this great church at
Yarmouth, the church of St. Margaret at Lynn, and of St. Mary
at Elmham. He removed the episcopal see from Thetford to
Norwich, and instituted the Cluniack Monks at Thetford, and
gave them, or built them a house. This old church, is very
large, and has a high spire, which is a useful sea-mark.

Here is one of the finest market-places, and the best serv'd
with provisions, in England, London excepted, and the inhabi-
tants are so multiplied in a few years, that they seem to want
room in their town, rather than people to fill it, as I have
observed above.

The streets are all exactly strait from north to south, with
lanes or alleys, which they call rows, crossing them in strait
lines also from east to west; so that it is the most regular
built town in England, and seems to have been built all at once;
Or, that the dimensions of the houses, and extent of the streets,
were laid out by consent.

They have particular privileges in this town, and a jurisdic-
tion by which they can try, condemn, and execute in especial
cases, without waiting for a warrant from above; and this they
exerted once very smartly, in executing a captain of one of the
king's ships of war in the reign of King Charles II, for a murther
committed in the street, the circumstance of which did indeed
call for justice; but some thought they would not have ventur'd
to exert their power as they did; however, I never heard that
the government resented it, or blamed them for it.

NORFOLK 69

It is also a very well governed town; and I have no where in
England observed the Sabbath-Day so exactly kept, or the
breach so continually punished as in this place, which I name
to their honour.

Among all these regularities, it is no wonder if we do not
find abundance of revelling, or that there is little encourage-
ment to assemblies, plays, and gaming-meetings at Yarmouth^
as in some other places; and yet I do not see that the ladies
here come behind any of the neighbouring counties, either in
beauty, breeding, or behaviour; to which may be added too,
not at all to their disadvantage, that they generally go beyond
them in fortunes.

From Yarmouth I resolv'd to pursue my first design, (viz.)
To view the sea-side on this coast, which is particularly famous
for being one of the most dangerous and most fatal to the
sailors in all England, I may say in all Britain; and the more
so, because of the great number of ships which are continually
going and coming this way, in their passage between London
and all the northern coasts of Great-Britain, Matters of
antiquity are not my enquiry, but principally observations
on the present state of things, and if possible, to give such
accounts of things worthy of recording, as have never been
observed before; and this leads me the more directly to mention
the commerce and the navigation when I come to towns upon
the coast, as what few writers have yet medled with.

The reason of the dangers of this particular coast, are found
in the situation of the county, and in the course of ships sailing
this way, which I shall describe as well as I can, thus; the shoar
from the mouth of the river of Thames to Yarmouth Road, lies
in a strait line from S.S.E. to N.N.W. the land being on the
W. or larboard side.

From Winterton Ness, which is the utmost northerly point
of land in the county of Norfolk, and about four miles beyond
Yarmouth, the shoar falls off for near sixty miles to the west, as
far as Lynn and Boston, till the shoar of Lincolnshire tends
north again for about sixty miles more, as far as the Humber,
whence the coast of Yorkshire, or Holderness, which is the
East Riding, shoots out again into the sea, to the Spurn, and to
Flambro' Head, as far east almost as the shoar of Norfolk had
given back at Winterton, making a very deep gulph or bay,
between those two points of Winterton and the Spurn Head;
so that the ships going north, are obliged to stretch away to
sea from Winterton Ness, and leaving the sight of land in that

70 DEFOE'S TOUR

deep bay which I have mention'd, that reaches to Lynn, and
the shoar of Lincolnshire, they go, I say, N. or still N.N.W. to
meet the shoar of Holderness, which I said runs out into the
sea again at the Spurn; This they leave also and the first land
they make, or desire to make, is called as above, Flambro*
Head; so that Winterton Ness and Flambro' Head, are the two
extremes of this course, there is, as I said, the Spurn Head
indeed between; but as it lies too far in towards the Humber,
they keep out to the north to avoid coming near it.

In like manner the ships which come from the north, leave
the shoar at Flambro' Head, and stretch away S.S.E. for Yar-
mouth Roads; and the first land they make is Winterton Ness
(as above). Now, the danger of the place is this; If the ships
coming from the north are taken with a hard gale of wind
from the S.E. or from any point between N.E. and S.E. so that
they cannot, as the seamen call it, weather Winterton Ness, they
are thereby kept in within that deep bay; and if the wind blows
hard, are often in danger of running on shoar upon the rocks
about Cromer, on the north coast of Norfolk, or stranding upon
the flat shoar between Cromer and Wells; all the relief they
have, is good ground tackle to ride it out, which is very hard
to do there, the sea coming very high upon them; Or if they
cannot ride it out then, to run into the bottom of the great bay
I mention'd, to Lynn or Boston, which is a very difficult and
desperate push: So that sometimes in this distress whole fleets
have been lost here all together.

The like is the danger to ships going northward, if after
passing by Winterton they are taken short with a north-east
wind, and cannot put back into the Roads, which very often
happens, then they are driven upon the same coast, and embay'd
just as the latter. The danger on the north part of this bay is
not the same, because if ships going or coming should be taken
short on this side Flambro', there is the River Humber open to
them, and several good roads to have recourse to, as Burlington
Bay, Grimsby Road, and the Spurn Head, and others, where
they ride under shelter.

The dangers of this place being thus consider'd, 'tis no wonder,
that upon the shoar beyond Yarmouth, there are no less than
four light-houses kept flaming every night, besides the lights
at Castor, north of the town, and at Goulston S, all which are
to direct the sailors to keep a good offing, in case of bad weather,
and to prevent their running into Cromer Bay, which the seamen
call the Devils Throat.

NORFOLK 7 1

As I went by land from Yarmouth northward, along the
shear towards Cromer aforesaid, and was not then fully master
of the reason of these things, I was surprised to see, in all the
way from Winterton, that the farmers, and country people had
scarce a barn, or a shed, or a stable; nay, not the pales of their
yards, and gardens, not a hogstye, not a necessary-house, but
what was built of old planks, beams, wales and timbers, &c.
the wrecks of ships, and ruins of mariners and merchants'
fortunes; and in some places were whole yards fill'd, and piled
up very high with the same stuff laid up, as I supposed to sell
for the like building purposes, as there should be occasion.

About the year 1692, (I think it was that year) there was
a melancholy example of what I have said of this place; a
fleet of 200 sail of light colliers (so they call the ships bound
northward empty to fetch coals from Newcastle to London)
went out of Yarmouth Roads with a fair wind, to pursue then-
voyage, and were taken short with a storm of wind at N.E,
after they were past Winterton Ness, a few leagues; some of
them, whose masters were a little more wary than the rest, or
perhaps, who made a better judgment of things, or who were not
so far out as the rest, tack'd, and put back in time, and got safe
into the roads; but the rest pushing on, in hopes to keep out to
sea, and weather it, were by the violence of the storm driven
back, when they were too far embay'd to weather Winterton
Ness, as above; and so were forc'd to run west, every one shifting
for themselves, as well as they could; some run away for Lyn
Deeps but few of them, (the night being so dark) cou'd find their
way in there; some but very few rid it out, at a distance; the rest
being above 140 sail were all driven on shore, and dash'd to
pieces, and very few of the people on board were sav'd: At the
very same unhappy juncture, a fleet of loaden ships were
coming from the north, and being just crossing the same bay,
were forcibly driven into it, not able to weather the Ness, and
so were involv'd in the same ruin as the light fleet was; also
some coasting vessels loaden with corn from Lyn, and Wells,
and bound for Holland, were with the same unhappy luck
just come out, to begin their voyage, and some of them lay at
anchor; these also met with the same misfortune, so that in
the whole, above 200 sail of ships, and above a thousand people
perished in the disaster of that one miserable night, very few
escaping.

Cromer is a market town dose to the shoar of this dangerous
coast, I know nothing it is famous for (besides it's being thus

72 DEFOE'S TOUR

;he terror of the sailors) except good lobsters, which are taken
>n that coast in great numbers, and carryed to Norwich, and in
such quantities sometimes too, as to be convey'd by sea to
London.

Farther within the land, and between this place and Norwich,
axe several good market towns, and innumerable villages, all
diligently applying to the woollen manufacture, and the country
is exceeding fruitful and fertil, as well in corn as in pastures;
particularly, (which was very pleasant to see) the phesants were
in such great plenty, as to be seen in the stubbles like cocks
and hens; a testimony tho* (by the way) that the county had
more tradesmen than gentlemen in it; indeed this part is so
entirely given up to industry, that what with the seafaring men
on the one side, and the manufactures on the other, we saw no
idle hands here, but every man busie on the main affair of
life, that is to say, getting money: Some of the principal of
these towns are Alsham, North Walsham, South Walsham,
Wursted, Caston, Reepham, Holt, Saxthorp, St. Faith's,
Blikling, and many others. Near the last Sir John Hobart, of
an antient family in this county, has a noble seat, but old
built. This is that St. Faiths, where the drovers bring their
black cattle to sell to the Norfolk graziers, as is observ'd above.

From Cromer, we ride on the strand or open shear to Weyburn
Hope, the shoar so flat that in some places the tide ebbs out
near two miles: From Weyburn west lyes Clye, where there are
large salt-works, and very good salt made, which is sold all
over the county, and some times sent to Holland, and to the
Baltick: From Clye, we go to Masham, and to Wells, all towns
on the coast, in each whereof there is a very considerable trade
caryM on with Holland for corn, which that part of the county
is very full of: I say nothing of the great trade driven here
from Holland, back again to England, because I take it to be a
trade carryed on with much less honesty than advantage;
especially while the clandestine trade, or the art of smuggling
was so much in practice; what it is now, is not to my present
purpose.

Near this town lye the Seven Burnhams, as they are calTd,
that is to say seven small towns, all calTd by the same name,
and each employed in the same trade of carrying corn to
Holland, and bringing back &c.

From hence we turn to the S.W. to Castle-Rising, an old
decay'd burrough town with perhaps not ten families in it,
which yet (to the scandal of our prescription right) sends two

NORFOLK 73

members to the British Parliament, being as many as the city
of Norwich it self, or any town in the kingdom, London excepted
can do.

On our left we see Walsingham, an antient town, famous
for the old ruins of a monastery of note there, and the shrine
of our Lady, as noted as that of St. Thomas-a-Becket at Canter-
bury, and for little else.

Near this place are the seats of the two ally'd families of the
Lord Viscount Townsend, and Robert Walpole, Esq; the latter
at this time one of the lords commissioners of the Treasury,
and minister of state, and the former one of the principal
secretaries of state to King GEORGE, of which again.

From hence we went to Lyn, another rich and populous
thriving port-town. It stands on more ground than the town
of Yarmouth, and has I think parishes, yet I cannot allow
that it has more people than Yarmouth, if so many. It is a
beautiful well built, and well situated town, at the mouth of
the River Ouse, and has this particular attending it, which
gives it a vast advantage in trade; namely, that there is the
greatest extent of inland navigation here, of any port in England,
London excepted. The reason whereof is this, that there are
more navigable rivers empty themselves here into the sea,
including the Washes which are branches of the same port,
than at any one mouth of waters in England, except the Thames
and the Humber. By these navigable rivers the merchants of
Lynn supply about six counties wholly, and three counties in
part, with their goods, especially wine and coals, (viz.) By the
Little Ouse, they send their goods to Brandon, and Thetford,
by the Lake to Mildenhall, Barton-Mills, and St. Edmunds-
Bury; by the river Grant to Cambridge, by the Great Ouse it
self to Ely, to St. Ives, to St. Neots, to Barford-Bridge, and to
Bedford; by the River Nyne, to Peterboro'; by the dreyns and
washes to Wysbich, to Spalding, Market-Deeping, and Stamford;
besides the several counties, into which these goods are carryed
by land carriage, from the places where the navigation of those
rivers ends; which has given rise to this observation on the town
of Lynn, that they bring in more coals, than any sea-port
between London and Newcastle; and import more wines than
any port in England, except London and Bristol; their trade
to Norway, and to the Baltick Sea is also great in proportion,
and of late years they have extended their trade farther to the
southward.

Here are more gentry, and consequently is more gayety in

74 DEFOE'S TOUR

this town than in Yarmouth, or even in Norwich it self; the
place abounding in very good company.

The situation of this town renders it capable of being made
very strong, and in the late wars it was so; a line of fortification
being drawn round it at a distance from the walls; the ruins,
or rather remains of which works appear very fair to this day;
nor would it be a hard matter to restore the bastions, with the
ravelins and counterscarp, upon any sudden emergency, to a
good state of defence; and that in a little time, a sufficient
number of workmen being employed, especially because they
are able to fill all their ditches with water from the sea, in such
a manner as that it cannot be drawn off.

There is, in the market-place of this town, a very fine statue
of King William on horseback, erected at the charge of the
town. The Owse is mighty large and deep, close to the very
town itself, and ships of good burthen may come up to the
key; but there is no bridge, the stream being too strong, and
the bottom moorish and unsound: Nor for the same reason
is the anchorage computed the best in the world; but there
are good roads farther down.

They pass over here in boats into the fenn-country, and over
the famous washes into Lincolnshire, but the passage is very
dangerous and uneasy, and where passengers often miscarry and
are lost; but then it is usually on their venturing at improper
times, and without the guides, which if they would be persuaded
not to do, they would very rarely fail of going or coming safe.

From Lynn, I bent my course to Downham, where is an
ugly wooden bridge over the Ouse; from whence we pass'd
the fenn country to Wisbich, but saw nothing that way to
tempt our curiosity but deep roads, innumerable dreyns and
dykes of water, all navigable, and a rich soil, the land bearing
a vast quantity of good hemp; but a base unwholsom air;
so we came back to Ely, whose cathedral, standing in a level
flat country, is seen far and wide; and of which town, when
the minster, so they call it, is described, every thing remarkable
is said that there is room to say; and of the minster this is the
most remarkable thing that I could hear, namely, that some of
it is so antient, totters so much with every gust of wind, looks
so like a decay, and seems so near it, that when ever it does
fall, all that 'tis likely will be thought strange in it, will be,
that it did not fall a hundred years sooner.

From hence we came over the Ouse, and in a few miles to
Newmarket: In our way near Snaybell we saw a noble seat of

NORFOLK 75

the late Admiral Russel, now Earl of Orford, a name made
famous by the glorious victory obtain'd under his command
over the French fleet, and the burning their ships at La Hogue;
a victory equal in glory to, and infinitely more glorious to the
English nation in particular, than that at Blenheim, and above
all more to the particular advantage of the Confederacy, because
it so broke the heart of the naval power of France, that they
have not fully recover'd it to this day: But of this victory it
must be said, it was owing to the haughty, rash, and insolent
orders given by the King of France to his admiral, (viz.) To
fight the Confederate fleet wherever he found them, without
leaving room for him to use due caution if he found them too
strong; which pride of France was doubtless a fate upon them,
and gave a cheap victory to the Confederates; the French
coming down rashly, and with the most impolitick bravery,
with about five and forty sail to attack between seventy and
eighty sail; by which means they met their ruin; whereas, had
their own fleet been join'd, it might have cost more blood to
have master 5 d them, if it had been done at all.

The situation of this house is low, and on the edge of the
fenn-country, but the building is very fine, the avenues noble,
and the gardens perfectly finished; the apartments also are
rich; and I see nothing wanting but a family and heirs, to
sustain the glory and inheritance of the illustrious ancestor,
who rais'd it, sed caret pedibus, these are wanting.

Being come to Newmarket in the month of October, I had
'the opportunity to see the horse-races; and a great concourse
of the nobility and gentry, as well from London as from all
parts of England; but they were all so intent, so eager, so busy
upon the sharping part of the sport, their wagers and bets,
that to me they seem'd just as so many horse-coursers in
Smithfield, descending (the greatest of them) from their high
dignity and quality, to picking one another's pockets, and
biting one another as much as possible, and that with such
eagerness, as that it might be said they acted without respect
to faith, honour, or good manners.

There was Mr. Frampton, the oldest, and as some say, the
cunningest jockey in England, one day he lost 1000 guineas,
the next he won two thousand; and so alternately he made as
light of throwing away five hundred or one thousand pounds
at a time, as other men do of their pocket-money, and as
perfectly calm, cheerful, and unconcerned, when he had lost
one thousand pounds, as when he had won it. On the other

76 DEFOE'S TOUR

side, there was Sir R Fagg, of Sussex, of whom fame says

he has the most in him and the least to shew for it, relating to
jockeyship, of any man there; yet he often carry'd the prize;
his horses, they said, were all cheats, how honest soever their
master was; for he scarce ever produc'd a horse but he look'd
like what he was not, and was what no body cou'd expect him
to be: If he was as light as the wind, and could fly like a meteor,
he was sure to look as clumsie, and as dirty, and as much like
a cart-horse as all the cunning of his master and the grooms
could make him; and just in this manner he bit some of the
greatest gamesters in the field.

I was so sick of the jockeying part, that I left the crowd
about the posts, and pleased my self with observing the horses;
how the creatures yielded to all the arts and managements of
their masters; how they took their airings in sport, and play'd
with the daily heats which they ran over the course before the
grand day; but how! as knowing the difference equally with
their riders, would they exert their utmost strength at the
time of the race itself; and that to such an extremity, that one
or two of them died in the stable when they came to be rubb'd
after the first heat.

Here I fansy'd myself in the Circus Maximus at Rome, seeing
the antient games, and the racings of the chariots and horse-
men; and in this warmth of my imagination I pleas'd and
diverted myself more and in a more noble manner, than I could
possibly do in the crowds of gentlemen at the weighing and
starting posts, and at their coming in; or at their meetings at
the coffee-houses and gaming-tables after the races were over,
where there was little or nothing to be seen, but what was the
subject of just reproach to them, and reproof from every wise
man that look'd upon them. N.B. Pray take it with you as you
go, you see no ladies at New-Market, except a few of the neigh-
bouring gentlemen's families who come in their coaches on any
particular day to see a race and so go home again directly.

As I was pleasing myself with what was to be seen here, I went
in the intervals of the sport to see the fine seats of the gentlemen
in the neighbouring county, for this part of Suffolk, being an
open champain country, and a healthy air, is form'd for pleasure,
and all kinds of country diversions; nature, as it were, inviting
the gentlemen to visit her, where she was fully prepared to receive
them; in conformity to which kind summons they came; for
the country is, as it were, cover'd with fine palaces of the
nobility, and pleasant seats of the gentlemen.

SUFFOLK 77

The Earl of Orford's house I have mention'd already, the
next is Euston Hall, the seat of the Duke of Graf ton; it lies in
the open country towards the side of Norfolk, not far from
Thetford; a place capable of all that is pleasant and delightful
in nature, and improv'd by art to every extreme that Nature
is able to produce.

From thence I went to Rushbrook, formerly the seat of the
noble family of Jermyns, lately Lord Dover, and now of the
house of Davers. Here Nature, for the time I was there, droopt,
and veil'd all the beauties of which she once boasted; the
family being in tears, and the house shut up; Sir Robert Davers,
the head thereof, and knight of the shire for the county of
Suffolk, and who had married the eldest daughter of the late
Lord Dover, being just dead, and the corpse lying there in its
funeral form of ceremony, not yet buried; yet all look'd lovely
in their sorrow, and a numerous issue promising and grown up,
intimated that the family of Davers would still flourish, and
that the beauties of Rushbrook, the mansion of the family,
were not form'd with so much art in vain, or to die with the
present possessor.

After this we saw Brently, the seat of the Earl of Dysert, and
the antient palace of my Lord CornwalHs, with several others
of exquisite situation, and adprn'd with the beauties both of
art and nature; so that I think, any traveller from abroad,
who would desire to see how the English gentry live, and what
pleasures they enjoy, should come into Suffolk and Cambridge-
shire, and take but a light circuit among the country seats of
the gentlemen on this side only, and they would be soon con-
vinc'd, that not France, no not Italy itself, can out-do them,
in proportion to the climate they lived in.

I had still the county of Cambridge to visit, to compleat
this tour of the eastern part of England, and of that I come
now to speak.

We enter Cambridgeshire out of Suffolk with all the advantage
in the world; the county beginning upon those pleasant and
agreeable plains calTd New Market-Heath, where passing the
Devil's Ditch, which has nothing worth notice but its name,
and that but fabulous too, from the hills calFd Gogmagog, we
see a rich and pleasant vale westward, cover'd with corn-fields,
gentlemen's seats, villages, and at a distance, to crown all the
rest, that antient and truly famous town and university of
Cambridge; capital of the county, and receiving its name from,
if not as some say, giving name to it; for if it be true that the

78 DEFOE'S TOUR

town takes Its name of Cambridge from its bridge over the
River Cam; then certainly the shire or county, upon the division
of England into counties, had its name from the town, and
Cambridgeshire signifies no more or less than the county of
which Cambridge is the capital town.

As my business is not to lay out the geographical situation
of places, I say nothing of the buttings and boundings of this
county: It lies on the edge of the great level, call'd by the
people here the fenn-country; and great part, if not all, the
Isle of Ely, lies in this county and Norfolk: The rest of Cam-
bridgeshire is almost wholly a corn country; and of that corn
five parts in six of all they sow, is barly, which is generally sold
to Ware and Royston, and other great malting-towns in
Hertfordshire, and is the fund from whence that vast quantity
of malt, call'd Hertfordshire malt is made, which is esteem'd
the best in England. As Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, are taken
up in manufacturing, and fam'd for industry, this county has
no manufacture at all; nor are the poor, except the husband-
men, fam'd for any thing so much as idleness and sloth, to their
scandal be it spoken; what the reason of it is, I know not.

It is scarce possible to talk of anything in Cambridgeshire but
Cambridge itself; whether it be that the county has so little
worth speaking of in it, or that the town has so much, that
I leave to others; however, as I am making modern observa-
tions, not writing history, I shall look into the county as well
as into the colleges, for what I have to say.

As I said, I first had a view of Cambridge from Gogmagog
Hills: I am to add, that there appears on the mountain that
goes by this name, an antient camp, or fortification, that lies
on the top of the hill, with a double or rather treble rampart
and ditch, which most of our writers say was neither Roman
nor Saxon, but British: I am to add, that King James II. caused
a spacious stable to be built in the area of this camp, for his
running-horses, and made old Mr. Frampton, whom I men-
tion'd above, master or inspector of them: The stables remain
still there, tho' they are not often made use of. As we descended
westward, we saw the fenn country on our right, almost all
covered with water like a sea, the Michaelmas rains having
been very great that year, they had sent down great floods of
water from the upland countries, and those fenns being, as
may be very properly said, the sink of no less than thirteen
counties; that is to say, that all the water, or most part of the
water of thirteen counties, falls into them, they axe often thus

CAMBRIDGESHIRE 79

overflow'd. The rivers which thus empty themselves into these
fenns, and which thus carry off the water, are the Cam or
Grant, the Great Ouse, and Little Ouse, the Nene, the Welland,
and the river which runs from Bury to Milden-Hall; the counties
which these rivers drain, as above, are as follows,

Lincoln, Warwick, Norfolk,

*Cambridge, Oxford, Suffolk,

*Huntingdon, Leicester, Essex.

*Bedford, *Northampton,

Buckingham, *Rutland,

N. Those mark'd with (*) empty all their waters this way,
the rest but in part.

In a word, all the water of the middle part of England which
does not run into the Thames or the Trent, comes down into
these fenns.

In these fenns are abundance of those admirable pieces of
art calTd duckoys; that is to say, Places so adapted for the
harbour and shelter of wild-fowl, and then furnish'd with a
breed of those they call decoy-ducks, who are taught to allure
and entice their kind to the places they belong to, that it is
incredible what quantities of wild-fowl of all sorts, duck, mallard,
teal, widgeon, &c. they take in those duckoys every week,
during the season; it may indeed be guess'd at a little by this,
that there is a duckoy not far from Ely, which pays to the
landlord, Sir Tho. Hare 500!. a year rent, besides the charge of
maintaining a great number of servants for the management;
and from which duckoy alone they assured me at St. Ives, (a
town on the Ouse, where the fowl they took was always brought
to be sent to London;) that they generally sent up three thousand
couple a week.

There are more of these about Peterbro' who send the fowl
up twice a week in waggon loads at a time, whose waggons
before the late Act of Parliament to regulate carriers, I have
seen drawn by ten, and twelve horses a piece, they were loaden
so heavy.

As these fenns appear coverM with water, so I observed too,
that they generally at this latter part of the year appear also
sover'd with foggs, so that when the Downs and higher grounds
of the adjacent country were gilded by the beams of the sun,
the Isle of Ely look'd as if wrapp'd up in blankets, and nothing
to be seen, but now and then, the lanthorn or cupola of Ely
Minster.

8o DEFOE'S TOUR

One could hardly see this from the hills and not pity the
many thousands of families that were bound to or confin'd in
those foggs, and had no other breath to draw than what must
be mix'd with those vapours, and that steam which so univer-
sally overspread the country: But notwithstanding this, the
people, especially those that are used to it, live unconcern'd,
and as healthy as other folks, except now and then an ague,
which they make light of, and there are great numbers of very
antient people among them.

I now draw near to Cambridge, to which I fansy I look as if
I was afraid to come, having made so many circumlocutions
beforehand; but I must yet make another digression before I
enter the town; (for in my way, and as I came in from New
Market, about the beginning of September;) I cannot omit,
that I came necessarily through Sturbridge Fair, which was
then in its height.

If it is a diversion worthy a book to treat of trifles, such
as the gayety of Bury Fair, it cannot be very unpleasant,
especially to the trading part of the world, to say something of
this fair, which is not only the greatest in the whole nation,
but in the world; nor, if I may believe those who have seen
them all, is the fair at Leipsick in Saxony, the mart at Frankfort
on the Main, or the fairs at Neuremberg, or Augsburg, any way
to compare to this fair at Sturbridge.

It is kept in a large corn-field, near Casterton, extending
from the side of the River Cam, towards the road, for about
half a mile square.

If the husbandmen who rent the land, do not get their corn
off before a certain day in August, the fair-keepers may trample
it under foot and spoil it to build their booths, or tents; for all
the fair is kept in tents, and booths: On the other hand, to
ballance that severity, if the fair-keepers have not done their
business of the fair, and remov'd and dear'd the field by another
certain day in September, the plowmen may come in again,
with plow and cart, and overthrow all and trample it into the
dirt; and as for the filth, dung, straw, &c. necessarily left by the
fair-keepers, the quantity of which is very great, it is the
farmers fees, and makes them full amends for the trampling,
riding, and carting upon, and hardening the ground.

It is impossible to describe all the parts and circumstances
of this fair exactly; the shops are placed in rows like streets,
whereof one is call'd Cheapside; and here, as in several other
streets, are all sorts of trades, who sell by retale, and who

CAMBRIDGESHIRE 81

come principally from London with their goods; scarce any
trades are omitted, goldsmiths, toyshops, brasiers, turners,
milleners, haberdashers, hatters, mercers, drapers, pewtrers,
china-warehouses, and hi a word all trades that can be named in
London; with coffee-houses, taverns, brandy-shops, and eating-
houses, innumerable, and all in tents, and booths, as above.

This great street reaches from the road, which as I said goes
from Cambridge to New-Market, turning short out of it to the
right towards the river, and holds in a line near half a mile
quite down to the river-side: In another street parallel with the
road are like rows of booths, but larger, and more intermingled
with wholesale dealers, and one side, passing out of this last
street to the left hand, is a formal great square, form'd by the
largest booths, built in that form, and which they call the
Duddery; whence the name is deriv'd, and what its significa-
tion is, I could never yet learn, tho' I made all possible search
into it. The area of this square is about 80 to a 100 yards, where
the dealers have room before every booth to take down, and
open their packs, and to bring in waggons to load and unload.

This place is separated, and peculiar to the wholesale dealers
in the woollen manufacture. Here the Booths, or tents, are ^of
a vast extent, have different apartments, and the quantities
of goods they bring are so great, that the insides of them look
like another Blackwell-Hall, being as vast ware-houses piTd
up with goods to the top. In this Duddery, as I have been
inform'd, there have been sold one hundred thousand pounds
worth of woollen manufactures hi less than a week's time,
besides the prodigious trade carryM on here, by wholesale-
men, from London, and all parts of England, who transact
their business wholly in their pocket-books, and meeting their
chapmen from all parts, make up then* accounts, receive money
chiefly in bills, and take orders: These they say exceed by far
the sales of goods actually brought to the fair, and deliver' d in
kind; it being frequent for the London wholesale men to carry
back orders from their dealers for ten thousand pounds worth
of goods a man, and some much more. This especially respects
those people, who deal in heavy goods, as wholesale grocers,
salters, brasiers, iron-merchants, wine-merchants, and the like;
but does not exclude the dealers in woollen manufactures, and
especially in mercery goods of all sorts, the dealers in which
generally manage their business hi this manner.

Here are clothiers from Hallifax, Leeds, Wakefield and
Huthersfield in Yorkshire, and from Rochdale, Bury, &c. in

82 DEFOE'S TOUR

Lancashire, with vast quantities of Yorkshire cloths, kerseyes,
pennistons, cottons, &c. with all sorts of Manchester ware,
fustians, and things made of cotton wool; of which the quantity
is so great, that they told me there were near a thousand
horse-packs of such goods from that side of the country, and
these took up a side and half of the Duddery at least; also
a part of a street of booths were taken up with upholsterer's
ware, such as tickings, sackings, Kidderminster stuffs, blankets
rugs, quilts, &c.

In the Duddery I saw one ware-house, or booth, with six
apartments in it, all belonging to a dealer in Norwich stuffs
only, and who they said had there above twenty thousand
pounds value, in those goods, and no other.

Western goods had their share here also, and several booths
were filTd as full with serges, du-roys, druggets, shalloons,
cantaloons, Devonshire kersies, &c. from Exeter, Taunton,
Bristol, and other parts west, and some from London also.

But all this is still outdone, at least in show, by two articles,
which are the peculiars of this fair, and do not begin till the
other part of the fair, that is to say for the woollen manu-
facture, begins to draw to a close: These are the WOOLL, and
the HOPS, as for the hops, there is scarce any price fix'd for
hops in England, till they know how they sell at Sturbridge
Fair; the quantity that appears in the fair is indeed prodigious,
and they, as it were, possess a large part of the field on which
the fair is kept, to themselves; they are brought directly from
Chelmsford in Essex, from Canterbury and Maidstone hi Kent,
and from Farnham in Surrey, besides what axe brought from
London, the growth of those, and other places.

Enquiring why this fair should be thus, of all other places in
England, the center of that trade; and so great a quantity of
so bulky a commodity be carryed thither so far: I was answered
by one thoroughly acquainted with that matter thus: The
hops, said he, for this part of England, grow principally in the
two counties of Surrey and Kent, with an exception only to the
town of Chelmsford in Essex, and there are very few planted
any where else.

There are indeed in the west of England some quantities
growing; as at Wilton, near Salisbury; at Hereford and Brooms-
grove, near Wales, and the like; but the quantity is incon-
siderable, and the places remote, so that none of them come
to London.

As to the north of England they formerly used but few hops

CAMBRIDGESHIRE 83

there, their drink being chiefly pale smooth ale, which required
no hops, and consequently they planted no hops in all that
part of England, north of Trent; nor did I ever see one acre
of hop-ground planted beyond Trent, in my observations;
but as for some years past, they not only brew great quantities
of beer in the north; but also use hops in the brewing their
ale much more than they did before; so they all come south of
Trent to buy their hops; and here being vast quantities bought,
'tis great part of their back carriage into Yorkshire, and North-
amptonshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire, and all those counties;
nay, of late, since the Union, even to Scotland it self; for I must
not omit here also to mention, that the river Grant, or Cam,
which runs close by the N.W. side of the fair in its way from
Cambridge to Ely, is navigable, and that by this means, all
heavy goods are brought even to the fair-field, by water carriage
from London, and other parts; first to the port of Lynn, and
then in barges up the Ouse, from the Ouse into the Cam, and
so, as I say, to the very edge of the fair.

In like manner great quantities of heavy goods, and the
hops among the rest, are sent from the fair to Lynn by water,
and shipped there for the Humber, to Hull, York, &c. and for
New-Castle upon Tyne, and by New-Castle, even to Scotland
itself. Now as there is still no planting of hops in the north,
tho' a great consumption, and the consumption increasing
daily, this, says my friend, is one reason why at Sturbridge
Fair there is so great a demand for the hops: he added, that
besides this, there were very few hops, if any worth naming,
growing in all the counties even on this side Trent, which were
above forty miles from London; those counties depending on
Sturbridge Fair for their supply, so the counties of Suffolk,
Norfolk, Cambridge, Huntingdon, Northampton, Lincoln,
Leicester, Rutland, and even to Stafford, Warwick and
Worcestershire, bought most if not all of their hops at
Sturbridge Fair.

These are the reasons why so great a quantity of hops are
seen at this fair, as that it is incredible, considering too, how
remote from this fair the growth of them is, as above.

This is likewise a testimony of the prodigious resort of the
trading people of all parts of England to this fair; the quantity
of hops that have been sold at one of these fairs is diversly
reported, and some affirm it to be so great, that I dare not
copy after them; but without doubt it is a surprising account,
especially in a cheap year.

84 DEFOE'S TOUR

The next article brought hither, is wool, and this of several
sorts, but principally fleece wool, out of Lincolnshire, where
the longest staple is found; the sheep of those countries being
of the largest breed.

The buyers of this wool, are chiefly indeed the manufacturers
of Norfolk and Suffolk, and Essex, and it is a prodigious quantity
they buy.

Here I saw what I have not observ'd in any other country of
England, namely, a pocket of wool. This seems to be first call'd
so in mockery, this pocket being so big, that it loads a whole
waggon, and reaches beyond the most extream parts of it,
hanging over both before, and behind, and these ordinarily
weigh a ton or 25 hundred weight of wool, all in one bag.

The quantity of wool only, which has been sold at this place
at one fair, has been said to amount to fifty or sixty thousand
pounds in value, some say a great deal more.

By these articles a stranger may make some guess, at the
immense trade carry'd on at this place; what prodigious
quantities of goods are bought, and sold here, and what a
confluence of people are seen here from all parts of England.

I might go on here to speak of several other sorts of English
manufactures, which are brought hither to be sold; as all sorts
of wrought iron, and brass ware from Birmingham; edg'd
tools, knives, &c. from Sheffield; glass ware, and stockings,
from Nottingham, and Leicester; and an infinite throng of
other things of smaller value, every morning.

To attend this fair, and the prodigious conflux of people,
which come to it, there are sometimes no less than fifty hackney
coaches, which come from London, and ply night and morning
to carry the people to and from Cambridge; for there the gross
of the people lodge; nay, which is still more strange, there are
wherries brought from London on waggons to plye upon the
little river Cam, and to row people up and down from the town,
and from the fair as occasion presents.

It is not to be wondered at, if the town of Cambridge cannot
receive, or entertain the numbers of people that come to this
fair; not Cambridge only, but all the towns round are full;
nay, the very barns, and stables are turn'd into inns, and made
as fit as they can to lodge the meaner sort of people: As for
the people in the fair, they all universally eat, drink, and sleep
in their booths, and tents; and the said booths are so inter-
mingled with taverns, coffee-houses, drinking-houses, eating-
houses, cooks-shops, &c. and all in tents too; and so many

CAMBRIDGESHIRE 85

butchers, and higglers from all the neighbouring counties come
into the fair every morning, with beef, mutton, fowls, butter,
bread, cheese, eggs, and such things; and go with them from
tent to tent, from door to door, that there's no want of any
provisions of any kind, either dress'd, or undress'd.

In a word, the fair is like a well fortify'd city, and there is
the least disorder and confusion (I believe) that can be seen
any where, with so great a concourse of people.

Towards the latter end of the fair, and when the great hurry
of wholesale business begins to be over, the gentry come in,
from all parts of the county round; and tho' they come for
their diversion; yet 'tis not a little money they lay out; which
generally falls to the share of the retailers, such as toy-shops,
goldsmiths, brasiers, ironmongers, turners, milleners, mercers,
&c. and some loose coins, they reserve for the puppet-shows,
drolls, rope-dancers, and such like; of which there is no want,
though not considerable like the rest: The last day of the fair
is the horse-fair where the whole is clos'd with both horse and
foot-races, to divert the meaner sort of people only, for nothing
considerable is offer'd of that kind: Thus ends the whole fair
and in less than a week more there is scarce any sign left that
there has been such a thing there: except by the heaps of dung
and straw; and other rubbish which is left behind, trod into the
earth, and which is as good as a summer's fallow for dunging
to the land; and as I have said above, pays the husbandmen
well for the use of it.

I should have mentioned, that here is a court of justice always
open, and held every day in a shed built on purpose in the fair;
this is for keeping the peace, and deciding controversies in
matters deriving from the business of the fair: The magistrates
of the town of Cambridge are judges in this court, as being in
their jurisdiction, or they holding it by special priviledge:
Here they determine matters in a summary way, as is
practis'd in those we call Pye-Powder Courts in other places,
or as a court of conscience; and they have a final authority
without appeal.

I come now to the town, and university of Cambridge;
I say the town and university, for tho' they are blended
together in the situation, and the colleges, halls, and houses
for literature are promiscuously scatter'd up and down among
the other parts, and some even among lie meanest of the
other buildings; as Magdalen College over the bridge, is in
particular; yet they are all encorporated together, by the

86 DEFOE'S TOUR

name of the university, and are govern'd apart, and distinct
from the town, which they are so intermix' d with.

As their authority is distinct from the town, so are their
priviledges, customs, and government; they choose repre-
sentatives, or Members of Parliament for themselves, and the
town does the like for themselves, also apart.

The town is govern'd by a mayor, and aldermen. The univer-
sity by a chancellor, and vice-chancellor, &c. Tho' their dwellings
are mix'd, and seem a little confus'd, their authority is not so;
in some cases the vice-chancellor may concern himself in the
town, as in searching houses for the scholars at improper hours,
removing scandalous women, and the like.

But as the colleges are many, and the gentlemen entertain'd
in them are a very great number, the trade of the town very
much depends upon them, and the tradesmen may justly be
said to get their bread by the colleges; and this is lie surest
hold the university may be said to have of the townsmen and
by which they secure tie dependence of the town upon them,
and consequently their submission.

I remember some years ago a brewer, who being very rich
and popular in the town, and one of their magistrates, had in
several things so much oppos'd the university, and insulted
their vice-chancellor, or other heads of houses, that in short
the university having no other way to exert themselves, and
show their resentment, they made a by-law or order among
themselves, that for the future they would not trade with
him; and that none of the colleges, halls, &c. would take any
more beer of him; and what follow'd? The man indeed brav'd
it out a while, but when he found he cou'd not obtain a revoca-
tion of the order, he was fain to leave off his brewhouse, and if
I remember right, quitted the town.

Thus I say, interest gives them authority; and there are
abundance of reasons why the town shou'd not disoblige the
university, as there are some also on the other hand, why the
university shou'd not differ to any extremity with the town;
nor, such is their prudence, dp they let any disputes between
them run up to any extremities, if they can avoid it. As for
society; to any man who is a lover of learning, or of learn'd
men, here is the most agreeable under heaven; nor is there
any want of mirth and good company of other kinds: But 'tis
to the honour of the university to say, that the governors so
well understand their office, and the governed their ^ duty,
that here is very little encouragement given to those seminaries

CAMBRIDGESHIRE 87

of crime the assemblies, which axe so much boasted of in
other places.

Again, as dancing, gaming, intriguing, are the three prin-
cipal articles which recommend those assemblies; and that
generally the time for carrying on affairs of this kind, is the
night, and sometimes all night; a time as unseasonable as
scandalous; add to this, that the orders of the university admit
no such excesses: I therefore say, as this is the case, 'tis to the
honour of the whole body of the university, that no encourage-
ment is given to them here.

As to the antiquity of the university in this town, the originals
and founders of the several colleges, their revenues, laws,
government and governors, they are so effectually and so
largely treated by other authors, and are so foreign to the
familiar design of these letters, that I refer my readers to
Mr. Camden's Britannia) and the author of the Antiquities of
Cambridge, and other such learned writers, by whom they may
be fully informed.

The present vice-chancellor is Dr. Snape, formerly master
of Eaton School near Windsor; and famous for his dispute with
and evident advantage over the late Bishop of Bangor, in the
time of his government; the dispute between the university
and the master of Trinity College has been brought to a head,
so as to employ the pens of the learned on both sides; but at
last prosecuted in a judicial way, so as to deprive Dr. Bently
of all his dignities and offices in the university; but the Dr. flying
to the royal protection, the university is under a writ of man-
damus, to shew cause why they do not restore the doctor
again, to which it seems they demur, and that demur has not,
that we hear, been argued, at least when these sheets were sent
to the press; what will be the issue time must shew.

From Cambridge the road lies north-west, on the edge of
the fenns, to Huntingdon, where it joins the Great North-Road;
on this side, 'tis all an agreeable corn country, as above; adorn' d
with several seats of gentlemen, but the chief is the noble
house, seat, or mansion of Wimple, or Wimple-Hall, formerly
built at a vast expence, by the late Earl of Radnor; adorn' d
with all the natural beauties of situation; a^d to which was
added all the most exquisite contrivances which the best heads
cou'd invent to make it artificially as well as naturally pleasant.

However, the fate of the Radnor family so directing, it was
bought, with the whole estate about it, by the late Duke of
Newcastle; in a partition of whose immense estate, it fell to

88 DEFOE'S TOUR

the Right Honourable the Lord Harley, (son and heir apparent
of the present Earl of Oxford and Mortimer) in right of the
Lady Harriot Cavendish, only daughter of the said Duke of
Newcastle, who is married to his lordship, and brought him
this estate, and many other, sufficient to denominate her the
richest heiress in Great-Britain.

Here his lordship resides, and has already so recommended
himself to this country, as to be by a great majority chosen
knight of the shire for the county of Cambridge.

From Cambridge, my design obliging me, and the direct
road, in part concurring, I came back thro' the west part of
the county of Essex, and at Saffron Walden I saw the ruins
of the once largest and most magnificent pile in all this part of
England, (viz.) Audley End; built by, and decaying with the
noble Dukes and Earls of Suffolk.

A little north of this part of the country rises the River
Stour, which for a course of fifty miles or more, parts the two
counties of Suffolk and Essex; passing thro* or near Haveril,
Gare, Cavendish, Halsted, Sudbury, Buers, Nayland, Stretford,
Dedham, Manningtree, and into the sea at Harwich; assisting
by its waters to make one of the best harbours for shipping
that is in Great-Britain; I mean Orwell Haven, or Harwich,
of which I have spoken largely already.

As we came on this side we saw at a distance Braintree and
Bocking, two towns, large, rich and populous, and made so
originally by the bay trade, of which I have spoken at large
at Colchester, and which flourishes still among them.

The manour of Braintree I found descended by purchase, to
the name of Olmeus, the son of a London merchant of the same
name; making good what I had observ'd before, of the great
number of such who have purchas'd estates in this county.

Near this town is Felsted, a small place, but noted for a
free-school, of an antient foundation; for many years under
the mastership of the late reverend Mr. Lydiat, and brought
by him to the meridian of its reputation: 'Tis now supplied,
and that very worthily, by the reverend Mr. Hutchins.

Near to this is the priory of Lees, a delicious seat of the late
Dukes of Manchester, but sold by the present duke to the
Dutchess Dowager of Bucks; his grace the Duke of Manchester
removing to his yet finer seat of Kimbolton in Northampton-
shire, the antient mansion of the family. From hence keeping
the London road I came to Chelmsford, mentioned before, and
Ingerstone, five miles west, which I mention again; because in

ESSEX 89

the parish-church of this town axe to be seen the antient
monuments of the noble family of Petre; whose seat, and a
large estate, lie in the neighbourhood; and whose whole family,
by a constant series of beneficent actions to the poor, and
bounty upon all charitable occasions, have gain'd an affec-
tionate esteem thro' all that part of the country, such as no
prejudice of religion could wear out, or perhaps ever may;
and I must confess, I think, need not; for good and great
actions command our respect, let the opinions of the persons
be otherwise what they will.

From hence we cross'd the country to the great forest, called
Epping Forest, reaching almost to London. The country on
that side of Essex is called the Roodings, I suppose because
there are no less than ten towns almost together, called by the
name of Roding, and is famous for good land, good malt, and
dirty roads; the latter indeed in the winter are scarce passable
for horse or man. In the midst of this we see Chipping Onger,
Hatfield Broad-Oak, Epping, and many forest-towns, fam'd,
as I have said, for husbandry and good malt; but of no other
note. On the south-side of the county is Waltham-Abbey; the
ruins of the abbey remain; and tho' antiquity is not my proper
business, I cou'd not but observe, that King Harold, slain in
the great battle in Sussex against William the Conqueror, lies
buried here; his body being begg'd by his mother, the Conqueror
allow' d it to be carried hither; but no monument was, as I can
find, built for him, only a flat grave-stone, on which was
engraven, Harold Infceltx.

From hence I came over the forest again, that is to say, over
the lower or western part of it, where it is spangled with fine
villages, and these villages filTd with fine seats, most of them
built by the citizens of London, as I observed before; but the
lustre of them seems to be entirely swallow'd up in the magni-
ficent palace of the Lord Castlemain, whose father, Sir Josiah
Child, as it were, prepared it in his life for the design of his son,
tho' altogether unforeseen; by adding to the advantage of its
situation innumerable rows of trees, planted in curious order
for avenues and visto's, to the house, all leading up to the
place where the old house stood, as to a center.

In the place adjoining, his lordship, while he was yet Sir
Richard Child only, and some years before he began the foun-
dation of his new house, laid out the most delicious as well
as most spacious pieces of ground for gardens that is to be seen
in all this part of England* The green-house is an excellent

90 DEFOE'S TOUR

building fit to entertain a prince; 'tis furnish'd with stoves and
artificial places for heat from an apartment, in which is a
bagnio, and other conveniences, which render it both useful
and pleasant; and these gardens have been so the just admira-
tion of the world, that it has been the general diversion of the
citizens to go out to see them, till the crowds grew too great,
and his lordship was oblig'd to restrain his servants from
shewing them, except on one or two days in a week only.

The house is built since these gardens have been finish'd:
The building is all of Portland stone in the front, which makes
it look extremely glorious and magnificent at a distance; it
being the particular property of that stone, except in the streets
of London, where it is tainted and ting'd with the smoak of the
city, to grow whiter and whiter the longer it stands in the
open air.

As the front of the house opens to a long row of trees, reaching
to the great road at Leighton Stone; so the back-face, or front,
if that be proper, respects the gardens, and with an easy descent
lands you upon the terras, from whence is a most beautiful
prospect to the river, which is all f orm'd into canals and openings,
to answer the views from above, and beyond the river, the walks
and wildernesses go on to such a distance, and in such a manner
up the hill, as they before went down, that the sight is lost in
the woods adjoining, and it looks all like one planted garden as
far as the eye can see.

I shall cover as much as possible the melancholy part of a
story, which touches too sensibly, many, if not most of the
great and flourishing families in England: Pity and matter
of grief is it to think that families, by estate, able to appear
in such a glorious posture as this, should ever be vulnerable
by so mean a disaster as that of stock-jobbing: But the general
infatuation of the day is a plea for it; so that men are not now
blamed on that account: South-Sea was a general possession;
and if my Lord Castlemain was wounded by that arrow shot
in the dark, 'twas a misfortune: But 'tis so much a happiness,
that it was not a mortal wound, as it was to some men, who
once seem'd as much out of the reach of it; and that blow, be
it what it will, is not remember'd for joy of the escape; for we
see this noble family, by prudence and management rise out
of all that cloud, if it may be alloVd such a name, and shining
in the same full lustre as before.

This cannot be said of some other families in this county,
whose fine parks and new-built palaces are fallen under for-

ESSEX 91

feitures and alienations by the misfortunes of the times, and
by the ruin of their masters fortunes in that South-Sea Deluge.

But I desire to throw a veil over these things, as they come
in my way; 'tis enough that we write upon them as was written
upon King Harold's tomb at Waltham-Abbey, INMXIX, and
let all the rest sleep among things that are the fittest to be
forgotten.

From my Lord Castlemain's house, and the rest of the fine
dwellings on that side of the forest, for there are several very
good houses at Wanstead, only that they seem all swallow'd
up in the lustre of his lordship's palace; I say, from thence
I went south, towards the great road over that part of the
forest call'd the Flatts, where we see a very beautiful, but
retired and rural seat of Mr. Lethulier's, eldest son of the late
Sir John Lethulier, of Lusum in Kent, of whose family I shall
speak when I come on that side.

By this turn I came necessarily on to Stratford, where I set
out: And thus having finished my first circuit, I conclude my
first letter; and am,

SIR,

Your most humble,
And obedient servant.

APPENDIX TO LETTER I

Whoever travels, as I do, over England, and writes the
account of his observations, will, as I noted before, always
leave something, altering or undertaking, by such a growing,
improving nation as this; or something to discover in a nation,
where so much is hid, sufficient to employ the pens of those
that come after him, or to add, by way of Appendix to what
he has already observ'd.

This is my case, with respect to the particulars which follow:
i. Since these sheets were in the press, a noble palace of
Mr. Walpole's, at present first commissioner of the treasury,
privy-counsellor, &c. to King George, is, as it were, risen out
of the ruins of the ancient seat of the family of Walpole, at
Houghton, about 8 miles distant from Lynn, and on the north
coast of Norfolk, near the sea.

As the house is not yet finished, and when I pass'd by it,
was but newly design'd; it cannot be expected that I should
be able to give a particular description of what it will be: I can
do little more than mention, that it appears already to be
exceeding magnificent, and suitable to the genius of the great
founder.

But a friend of mine, who lives in that county, has sent me
the following lines, which, as he says, are to be plac'd upon
the building; whether on the frize of the cornish, or over the
portico, or on what part of the building, of that I am not as yet
certain: The inscription is as follows, viz.

H. M. P.

Fundamen ut essem Domus
In Agro Natali Extruendae,
Robertus ille Walpole
Quern, milla nesciet Posteritas :

Faxit Deus.

Postquam Maturus Annis Dominus.

Dm LaBtatus fuerit absoluta

Incolumem tueantur Incplumes.

Ad Sunnnam omnium Diem

Et nati matorum et qul nascentur ab illis,

Hie me Posuit.
92

PORT OF LONDON 93

A second thing proper to be added here, by way of Appendix,
relates to what I have mention'd of the Port of London, being
bounded by the Naze on the Essex shore, and the North Fore-
land on the Kentish shore, which some people, guided by the
present usage of the custom-house, may pretend is not so, to
answer such objectors. The true state of that case stands thus.

I. The clause taken from the Act of Parliament establishing the
extent of the Port of London, and published, in some of the books
of rates, is this:

To prevent all future differences and disputes touching the extent
and limits of the Port of London, the said port is declared to extend,
and be accounted, from the promentary, or point, calTd the North
Foreland, in the Isle of Thanet, and from thence northward in a
right line to the point calTd the NAZE, beyond the Gunfleet, upon the
coast of Essex; and so continued westward throughout the river
Thames, and the several channels, streams and rivers falling into
it, to London-Bridge; saving the usual and known rights, liberties
and privileges of the ports of Sandwich, and Ipswich, and either of
them, and the known members thereof, and of the customers,
comptrolers, searchers, and their deputies, of and within the said
ports of Sandwich and Ipswich, and the several creeks, harbours
and havens to them, or either of them, respectively belonging,
within the counties of Kent and Essex.

II. Notwithstanding what is above written, the Port of London,
as in use since the said Order, is understood to reach no farther
than Gravesend in Kent, and Tilbury Point in Essex; and the ports
of Rochester, Milton and Feversham, belong to the port of Sandwich.

In like manner the ports of Harwich, Colchester, Wevenhoe,
Maiden, Leigh, &c. are said to be members of the port of Ipswich.

This observation may suffice for what is needful to be said
upon the same subject, when I may come to speak of the port
of Sandwich, and its members, and their privileges, with respect
to Rochester, Milton, Feversham, &c. in my circuit thro* the
county of Kent.

LETTER H

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SEA-COASTS OF KENT,
SUSSEX, HAMPSHIRE, AND OF PART OF SURREY

SIR, As in my first journey I went over the eastern counties
of ENGLAND, viz. ESSEX, SUFFOLK, NORFOLK, and CAMBRIDGE,
and took my course on that side the river Thames, to view the
sea-coasts, harbours, &c. so being now to traverse the southern
counties, I begin with the other side of the Thames, and shall
surround the sea-coast of KENT, as I did that of NORFOLK and
SUFFOLK, and perhaps it is as fruitful of instructing and diverting
observations as any of the other.

I took boat at Tower-Wharf, sending my horses round by
land to meet me at Greenwich, that I might begin my journey
at the beginning of the county, and here I had the advantage
of making my first step into the county of Kent, at a place
which is the most delightful spot of ground in Great-Britain;
pleasant by situation, those pleasures encreas'd by art, and
all made compleatly agreeable by the accident of fine buildings,
the continual passing of fleets of ships up and down the most
beautiful river in Europe; the best air, best prospect, and the
best conversation in England.

The Royal Hospital for Seamen, though not yet finished; the
park, the queen's house, the Observatory on the hill, commonly
call'd Flamstead-House, are all things so well known, they need
no particular description.

The ground, part of this hospital now stands upon, and is
to stand upon, is the same on which formerly stood the royal
palace of our kings. Here Henry VIII. held his royal feasts
with justs and tournaments, and the ground which was call'd
the lilt-yard, is the spot on which the easternmost wing of the
hospital is built; the park, (for it was even then a park also)
was enlarged, walTd about, and planted with beautiful rows,
or walks of trees by King Charles II. soon after the Restoration;
and the design or plan of a royal palace was then lay'd out, one
wing of which was finished and covered in a most magnificent
manner, and makes now the first wing of the hospital as you come

94

KENT 95

to it from London: The building is regular, the lower part a
strong Dorick, the middle part a most beautiful Corinthian,
with an Attick above all, to compleat the height; the front to
the water-side is extreamly magnificent and graceful; embellished
with rich carv'd work and fine devices, such as will hardly be
outdone in this, or any age for beauty or art.

They must be very ignorant of our English affairs, who have
publish'd very lately that Queen Elizabeth built the royal
palace of Greenwich; whereas it is evident, that it was the
palace of King Henry VIII. her father, before she was bom;
and this is prov'd beyond contradiction by this particular
circumstance, that her majesty was born in this very palace
which she is there said to have built.

But the beauty of Greenwich is owing to the lustre of its
inhabitants, where there is a kind of collection of gentlemen,
rather than citizens, and of persons of quality and fashion,
different from most, if not all, the villages in this part of England.

Here several of the most active and useful gentlemen of the
late armies, after having grown old in the service of their
country, and covered with the honours of the field, are retired
to enjoy the remainder of their time, and reflect with pleasure
upon the dangers they have gone thro', and the faithful services
they have perform'd both abroad and at home.

Several generals, and several of the inferior officers, I say,
having thus chosen this calm retreat, live here in as much
honour and delight as this world can give.

Other gentlemen still in service, as in the navy ordnance,
docks, yards, &c. as well while in business, as after laying down
their employments, have here planted themselves, insomuch,
that the town of Greenwich begins to out-swell its bounds, and
extends itself not only on this side the park to the top of the
heath, by the way calTd Crum-Hill, but now stretches out on
the east-side, where Sir John Vanburg has built a house castle-
wise, and where in a little time 'tis probable, several streets of
like buildings will be erected, to the enlarging and beautifying
the town, and encreasing the inhabitants; who, as I have said,
are already the chief beauty and ornament of the place: We are
told also that leave will be obtained to build a new church on
that side; the parish church, tho' new rebuilt, and very large and
beautiful, not being sufficient to receive the inhabitants, much
less will it be so, if the buildings go on to encrease, as they have
done, and as they now seem to do.

The river of Thames is here very broad, and the channel

g6 DEFOE'S TOUR

deep, and the water at some very high spring-tides is salt;
but in ordinary tides, is very sweet and fresh, especially at
the tide of ebb.

The country behind Greenwich adds to the pleasure of the
place: Black-Heath, both for beauty of situation, and an
excellent air, is not out-done by any spot of ground so near
the river and so near land in England.

On the east-side stands an hospital very particular for its
foundation or design, tho' thro' the misfortunes of the times,
the generous design of the founder has been much straiten'd,
and in great part, defeated.

It was built by Sir John Morden a Turkey merchant of London,
but who hVd in a great house at the going off from the heath,
a little south of the hospital on the road to Eltham; his first
design, as I had it from his own mouth the year before he
began to build, was to make apartments for forty decay'd
merchants, to whom he resolv'd to allow 4oZ. per annum, each;
with coals, a gown, (and servants to look after their apart-
ments) and many other conveniences so as to make their lives
as comfortable as possible, and that, as they had hVd like
gentlemen, they might dye so.

Sir John Morden and his lady lye bury'd in a vault in the
chancel of the chapel of this hospital: The chapel is a very
neat building facing the entrance into the court; the lodgings
for the merchants, are on either side; two apartments in each
stair case, with cellars for their conveniences, coals, beer, &c.
and each apartment consists of a bed-chamber, and a study,
or large closet, for their retreat, and to divert themselves in
with books, &c.

They have a publick kitchen, a hall to dine in, and over
the hall is a large room for the trustees (who manage the whole)
to meet in; there is also a very good apartment for the chaplain,
whose sallery is 50*. a year; there are also dwellings for the
cooks, buttlers, porter, the women and other servants, and
reasonable salaries allow' d them: And behind the chapel is a
handsome burying ground wall'd in; there are also very good
gardens; In a word, it is the noblest foundation, and most
considerable single piece of charity that has been erected in
England since Button's Hospital in London: I call it single,
because it has been built and endow'd by one single hand; the
situation is very pleasant, and the air very healthy and good.

There is erected over the gate, since Sir John's death, his
statue in stone, set up by his lady, and since her death, her

KENT 97

own is set up near it, by the trustees, she having been a bene-
factress to the foundation many ways since his decease.

There is a velvet pall given, by her ladyship in particular,
to be laid up in the chapel for the use of the gentlemen; as also
a large quantity of communion-plate; and the chaplain is
oblig'd to read prayers twice every day, viz. at eleven a clock,
and at three; at which all the pensioners are oblig'd to attend.

On the other side of the heath, north, is Charleton, a village
famous, or rather infamous for the yearly collected rabble of
mad-people, at Horn-Fair; the rudeness of which I cannot but
think, is such as ought to be suppress'd, and indeed in a civiliz'd
well govern' d nation, it may well be said to be unsufferable.
The mob indeed at that time take all kinds of liberties, and the
women are especially impudent for that day; as if it was a
day that justify'd the giving themselves a loose to all manner
of indecency and immodesty, without any reproach, or without
suffering the censure which such behaviour would deserve at
another time.

The introduction of this rude assembly, or the occasion of
it, I can meet with very little account of, in antiquity; and
I rather recommend it to the publick justice to be suppress'd,
as a nusance and offence to all sober people, than to spend any
time to enquire into its original.

There are some very good houses lately built in this town,
and abating the rabble and hurry of the igth of October, as
above, 'tis indeed a very pleasant village; standing on the top
of a high hill, yet shelter'd on one side by Shooter's-Hill, which
is much higher, and on the other side, over-looking the marshes
and the river Thames, on which it has a very agreeable prospect
from London almost to Gravesend.

Thro' this town lies the road to Woolwich, a town on the bank
of the same river, wholly taken up by, and in a manner rais'd
from, the yards, and publick works, erected there for the publick
service; here, when the business of the royal navy encreased,
and Queen Elizabeth built larger and greater ships of war than
were usually employed before, new docks, and launches were
erected, and places prepared for the building and repairing
ships of the largest size; because, as here was a greater depth
of water and a freer chanel, than at Deptford, (where the chief
yard in the river of Thames was before) so there was less hazard
in the great ships going up and down; the croud of merchant-

g8 DEFOE'S TOUR

ships at Deptford, being always such, as that it could not be so
safe to come up thither, as to put in at Woolwich.

At this dock the Royal-Sovereign was built, once the largest
ship in the whole royal navy, and in particular esteem' d, for
so large a ship, the best sailor in the world. Here also was
rebuilt the Royal Prince, now calTd the Queen, a first rate,
carrying a hundred guns, and several others: Close under the
south-shore from the west-end of Woolwich, the Thames is
very deep, and the men of war lye there moored, and as we call
it, laid up; their topmasts, and all their small rigging taken
down and laid in ware-houses; this reaches as high as the point
over-against Bow-River and is call'd Bugby's-Hole.

The docks, yards, and all the buildings belonging to it, are
encompassed with a high wall, and are exceeding spacious and
convenient; and are also prodigious full of all manner of stores
of timber, plank, masts, pitch, tar, and all manner of naval
provisions to such a degree, as is scarce to be calculated.

Besides the building-yards, here is a large rope-walk where
the biggest cables are made for the men of war; and on the
east or lower part of the town is the gun-yard, or place set
a part for the great guns belonging to the ships, commonly
calTd the Park, or the Gun-Park; where is a prodigious quantity
of all manner of ordnance-stores, such as are fit for sea-service,
that is to say, cannon of all sorts for the ships of war, every
ship's guns by themselves; heavy cannon for batteries, and
mortars of all sorts and sizes; insomuch, that, as I was inform'd,
here has been sometimes laid up at one time between seven and
eight thousand pieces of ordnance, besides mortars and shells
without number.

Here also is the house where the firemen and engineers
prepare their fireworks, charge bombs, carcasses, and grenades
for the publick service, in time of war; and here (if I remember
right, it was in the time of a Dutch war) by mischance, the fire
in the lab'ratory took hold of some combustibles, which spread-
ing nVd first a bomb or shell, and the bursting of that shell
blew up all the works with such a terrible blast and noise, as
shook and shatter'd the whole town of Woolwich almost in
pieces, and terrify'd the people to the last degree, but kilTd no
person as I heard of, except about eleven men who were in or
near the fireworking house, where it first took hold.

In this park, dose on the south bank of the river, a large
battery of forty pieces of heavy cannon was rais'd, to have
saluted the Dutch, if they had thought fit to have ventur'd up

KENT 99

the river in 1667, as was given out they would when they burnt
our ships at Chatham; and large furnaces and forges were
erected to have furnish'd the gunners with red hot bullets for
that service; but the Dutch had no design that way and did their
business with far less hazard, and as much to our disgrace in
another place.

Here is usually a guardship riding, especially in time of
service; also here is a large hulk made of the carcass of an old
man of war, sufficiently large for setting the masts of the
biggest ships in the navy. The Thames is here at high water
near a mile over, and the water salt upon the flood; and as
the chanel lyes strait east and west for about three miles, the
tide runs very strong; 'tis entirely free from shoals and sands,
and has seven or eight fathom water, so that the biggest ships,
and a great many of them, might ride here with safety even at
low water.

From this town there is little remarkable upon the river,
till we come to Gravesend, the whole shore being low, and
spread with marshes and unhealthy grounds, except with small
intervals, where the land bends inward as at Erith, Greenwhich,
North-Fleet, &c. in which places the chalk hills come close to
the river, and from thence the city of London, the adjacent
countries, and even Holland and Flanders, are supply'd with
lime, for their building, or chalk to make lime, and for other uses.

From these chalky cliffs on the river side, the rubbish of the
chalk, which crumbles away when they dig the larger chalk for
lime, or (as we might call it) the chips of the chalk, and which
they must be at the charge of removing to be out of their way,
is bought and fetch' d away by lighters and hoys, and carry J d
to all the ports and creeks in the opposite county of Essex, and
even to Suffolk and Norfolk, and sold there to the country
farmers to lay upon their land, and that in prodigious quantities ;
and so is it valued by the farmers of those countries, that they
not only give from two shillings and six pence, to four shillings
a load for it, according to the distance the place is from the
said chalk-clifT, but they fetch it by land-carriage ten miles,
nay fifteen miles, up into the country.

This is the practice in all the creeks and rivers in Essex, even
to Maiden, Colchester, the Nase, and into Harwich Harbour up
to Maningtree, and to Ipswich; as also in Suffolk, to Albro,
Orford, Dunwich, Swold, and as high as Yarmouth in Norfolk.

Thus the barren soil of Kent, for such the chalky grounds
are esteem'd, make the Essex lands rich and fruitful, and the

zoo DEFOE'S TOUR

mixture of earth forms a composition, which out of two barren
extreams, makes one prolifick medium; the strong clay of
Essex and Suffolk is made fruitful by the soft meliorating melting
chalk of Kent, which fattens and enriches it.

On the back-side of these marshy grounds in Kent at a small
distance, lies the road from London to Dover, and on that
highway, or near it, several good towns; for example, Eltham,
formerly a royal palace when the Court was kept at Greenwich;
and Queen Elizabeth, who (as before) was born at Greenwich,
was often carry'd, as they say, to Eltham by her nurses to suck
in the wholesome air of that agreeable place; but at present
there are few or no signs of the old palace to be seen.

It is now a pleasant town, very handsomely built, full of
good houses, and many families of rich citizens inhabit here:
(As I observed of the villages adjacent to London in other
counties) So it is here, they bring a great deal of good company
with them: Also abundance of ladies of very good fortunes
dwell here, and one sees at the church such an appearance of
the sex, as is surprising; but 'tis complain'd of that the youths
of these families where those beauties grow, are so generally
or almost universally bred abroad, either in Turkey, Italy, or
Spain, as merchants, or in the army or court as gentlemen;
that for the ladies to live at Eltham, is, as it were, to live recluse
and out of sight; since to be kept where the gentlemen do not
come, is all one as to be kept where they cannot come. This
they say threatens Eltham with a fatal turn, unless the scene
alters in a few years, and they tell us, that all the ladies will
abandon the place.

In the neighbourhood of this place at LVSVM, Sir John
Lethulier, a Turkey merchant, liv'd for many years, and to a
great age, and has established his family in the separate houses
of three or four several sons, to all which he has left plentiful
estates in this country, but especially in Essex, where his eldest
son has a very noble seat, and estate near Barking.

From this side of the country all pleasant and gay, we go
over Shooter's Hill, where the face of the world seems quite
alter'd; for here we have but a chalky soil, and indifferently
fruitful, far from rich; much overgrown with wood, especially
coppice-wood, which is cut for faggots and bavins, and sent
up by water to London. Here they make those faggots which
the wood-mongers call ostrey wood, and here in particular
those small light bavins which are used in taverns in London

KENT

to light their faggots, and are calTd in the taverns a brush,
the woodmen call them pimps; 'tis incredible what vast quan-
tities of these are lay'd up at Woolwich, Erith, and Dartford;
but since the taverns in London are come to make coal fires
in their upper rooms, that cheat of a trade declines; and tho'
that article would seem to be trifling in it self, 'tis not trifling
to observe what an alteration it makes in the value of those
woods in Kent, and how many more of them than usual are
yearly stubb'd up, and the land made fit for the plow.

As I passed, I saw Gravesend from the hills, but having been
often in the town, I know enough to be able to say, that there
is nothing considerable in it; except first that it is the town where
the great ferry (as they call it) is kept up between London and
East-Kent, it is hardly credible what numbers of people pass
here every tide, as well by night as by day, between this town
and London: Almost all the people of East-Kent, when they
go for London, go no farther by land than this town; and then
for six-pence in the tilt-boat, or one shilling in a small boat
or wherry, are carry'd to London by water.

About 25 years ago one of these tilt-boats was cast away,
occasion'd by the desperate obstinacy and rudeness of the
steersman or master, as they call him, who would tack again
and stand over upon a wind, in the reach calTd Long-Reach,
contrary to the advice and intreaties not of the passengers only
but of his own rowers, who told him it blew a storm and she
would founder; but he calTd them fools, bid the wind blow-
devil, (a rude sailor's proverb) the more wind the better boat,
till coming into the chanel where the sea ran very high, he
took in a wave, or a sea, as they call it, which run her down,
and founderM her, as was foretold; and himself and three and
fifty passengers were all drown'd, only about five escaping
by swimming.

The other thing for which this town is worth notice, is, that
all the ships which go to sea from London, take, as we say, their
departure from hence; for here all outward-bound ships must
stop, come to an anchor, and suffer what they call a second
clearing, (viz.) here a searcher of the customs comes on board,
looks over all the coquets or entries of the cargo, and may, if
he pleases, rummage the whole loading, to see if there are no
more goods than are entered; which however they seldom do,
tho' they forget not to take a compliment for their civility, and
besides being well treated on board, have generally three or
five guns fir'd in honour to them when they go off.

102 DEFOE'S TOUR

The method of causing all ships to stop here before they go,
is worth observing, and is as follows:

When a merchant-ship comes down from London, (if they
have the tide of ebb under foot, or a fresh gale of wind from
the west, so that they have, what they call fresh-way, and the
ships come down apace) they generally hand some of their
sails, haul up a fore-sail or main-sail, or lower the fore-top
sail; so to slaken her way, as soon as they come to the Old Man's
Head; when they open the reach, which they call Gravesend
Reach, which begins about a mile and half above the town, they
do the like, to signify that they intend to bring too, as the
sailors call it, and come to an anchor.

As soon as they come among the ships that are riding in the
road, (as there are always a great many) the centinel at the
block-house, as they call it, on Gravesend side fires his musquet,
which is to tell the pilot he must bring too; if he comes on, as
soon as the ship passes broad side with the block-house, the
centinel fires again, which is as much as to say, Why don't you
bring too? if he drives a little farther, he fires a third time, and
the language of that is, Bring too immediately, and let go your
anchor, or we will make you.

If the ship continues to drive down, and does not let go her
anchor, the gunner of the fort is fetdi'd, and he fires a piece
of cannon tho' without ball; and that is still a threat, tho' with
some patience, and is to say, Will you come to an anchor or
won't you? If he still ventures to go on, by which he gives them
to understand he intends to run for it; then the gunner fires
again, and with a shot, and that shot is a signal to the fortress
over the river, (viz.) Tilbury Fort, (which I describ'd in my
account of Essex) and they immediately let fly at the ship
from the guns on the east bastion and after from all the guns
they can bring to bear upon her; it is very seldom that a ship
will venture their shot, because they can reach her all the way
unto the Hope, and round the Hope-Point almost to Hole-Haven.

Yet I happen' d once to be upon the shore just by Tilbury-
Fort, when a ship ventur'd to run off hi spight of all those
fireings; and it being just at the first shoot of the ebb, and when
a great fleet of light colliers and other ships were under sail
too; by that time, the ship escaping came round the Hope-
Point, she was so hid among the other ships, that the gunners
on the bastion hardly knew who to shoot at; upon which they
mann'd out several boats with soldiers, in hopes to overtake
her or to make signals to some men of war at the Nore, to man

KENT 103

out their boats, and stop her, but she laugh'd at them all; for
as it blew a fresh gale of wind at south-west, and a tide of
ebb strong under her foot, she went three foot for their one,
and by that time the boats got down to Hole Haven, the ship
was beyond the Nore, and as it grew dark, they soon ^ lost
sight of her, nor could they ever hear to this day what ship it
was, or on what account she ventured to run such a risque.

Another time I was with some merchants in a large yatch,
bound to France; they had a great quantity of block-tin on
board, and other goods, which had not been enter'd at the
custom-house; and the master or captain told us, he did not
doubt but he would pass by Gravesend without coming to an
anchor; he lay, when this thought came into his head, at an
anchor in Gray's Reach just above the Old Man's Head, men-
tion'd above, which is a point or head of land on the Essex
shore, which makes the bottom of Gray's Reach and the upper
end of Gravesend Reach: He observ'd that the mornings were
likely to be exceeding foggy; particularly on the morning next
after his resolution of trying there was so thick a fog, that it was
scarce possible to see from the mam-mast to the bow-sprit, even
of a hoy; it being high water, he resolv'd to weigh and drive, as
he call'd it, and so he did: When he came among the other
ships and over against the town, his greatest danger was running
foul of them, to prevent which he kept a man lying on his belly
at the bow-sprit end, to look out, and so, tho' not without some
danger too, he went clear: As for Gravesend or Tilbury-Fort ;
they could see no more of us than they could of London-Bridge;
and we drove in this fog undiscern'd by the forts of the custom-
house men, as low as Hole-Haven, and went afterwards clear
away to Caen in Normandy without being visited.

But such attempts as these, are what would very hardly be
brought to pass again now, nor is the risque worth any body's
running if the value be considerable that may be lost; and
therefore one may venture to say, that all the ships which
go out of the river from London, are first clear'd here, even the
empty colliers and coasters go on shore, and give an account
who they are, and take a signal from the customs-house office,
and pay six-pence, and then pass on: As for ships coming in,
they all go by here without any notice taken of them, unless
it be to put waiters on board them, if they are not supplyM
before.

From Gravesend we see nothing remarkable on the road but
GAD'S-HILL, a noted place for robbing of sea-men after they

820

104 DEFOE'S TOUR

have receiv'd their pay at Chatham. Here it was that famous
robbery was commited in the year 1676 or thereabouts; it was
about four a clock in the morning when a gentleman was robb'd
by one Nicks on a bay mare, just on the declining part of the
hill, on the west-side, for he swore to the spot and to the man;
Mr. Nicks who robb'd him, came away to Gravesend, imme-
diately ferry' d over, and, as he said, was stopp'd by the diffi-
culty of the boat, and of the passage, near an hour; which was
a great discouragement to him, but was a kind of bait to his
horse: From thence he rode cross the county of Essex, thro'
Tilbury, Homden, and Bilerecay to Chelmsf ord : Here he stopp'd
about half an hour to refresh his horse, and gave him some
balls; from thence to Braintre, Bocking, Wethersfield; then
over the downs to Cambridge, and from thence keeping still
the cross roads, he went by Fenny Stanton to Gpdmanchester,
and Huntington, where he baited himself and his mare about
an hour; and, as he said himself, slept about half an hour, then
holding on the North Road, and keeping a full larger gallop
most of the way, he came to York the same afternoon, put off
his boots and riding doaths, and went dress' d as if he had been
an inhabitant of the place, not a traveller, to the bowling-green,
where, among other gentlemen, was the lord mayor of the city;
he singling out his lordship, study'd to do something particular
that the mayor might remember him by, and accordingly lays
some odd bett with him concerning the bowls then running,
which should cause the mayor to remember it the more par-
ticularly; and then takes occasion to ask his lordship what a
clock it was; who, pulling out his watch, told him the hour,
which was a quarter before, or a quarter after eight at night.

Some other circumstances, it seems, he carefully brought
into their discourse, which should make the lord mayor
remember the day of the month exactly, as well as the houi
of the day.

Upon a prosecution which happen'd afterwards for this
robbery, the whole merit of the case turn'd upon this single
point: The person robb'd swore as above to the man, to the
place, and to the time, in which the fact was committed
Namely, that he was robb'd on Gad's-Hill in Kent, on suet
a day, and at such a time of the day, and on such a part of th<
hill, and that the prisoner at the bar was the man that robb'c
him: Nicks, the prisoner, deny'd the fact, calTd several person!
to bis reputation, alledg'd that he was as far off as Yorkshir<
at that time, and that particularly the day whereon the prose

KENT 105

cutor swore he was robb'd, he was at bowles on the publick
green in the city of York; and to support this, he produced
the Lord Mayor of York to testify that he was so, and that the
mayor acted so and so with him, there as above.

This was so positive, and so well attested, that the jury
acquitted him on a bare supposition, that it was impossible the
man could be at two places so remote on one and the same day.
There are more particulars related of this story, such as I do not
take upon me to affirm; namely, That King Charles II. prevailed
on him on assurance of pardon, and that he should not be
brought into any farther trouble about it, to confess the truth
to him privately, and that he own'd to his majesty that he
commited the robbery, and how he rode the journey after it,
and that upon this the king gave him the name or title of Swift
Nicks, instead of Nicks; but these things, I say, I do not relate
as certain: I return to the business in hand.

From Gad's-Hill we come to Rochester Bridge, the largest,
highest, and the strongest built of all the bridges in England,
except London-Bridge; some indeed say, the bridge of New-
castle upon Tyne, exceeds all the bridges in England for strength;
and it is indeed very firm and wide, and has a street of houses
upon it like London-Bridge, and a gate in the middle as large
as a little castle, of which in its place; but then it is neither so
high nor so long as this bridge at Rochester.

Rochester, Stroud, and Chatham, are three distinct places,
but contiguous, except the interval of the river between the
two first, and a very small marsh or vacancy between Rochester
and Chatham.

There's little remarkable hi Rochester, except the ruins of a
very old castle, and an antient but not extraordinary cathedral;
but the river, and its appendices are the most considerable of
the kind in the world. This being the chief arsenal of the royal
navy of Great-Britain. The buildings here are indeed like the
ships themselves, surprisingly large, and in their several kinds
beautiful: The ware-houses, or rather streets of ware-houses,
and store-houses for laying up the naval treasure are the largest
in dimension, and the most in number, that are any where to
be seen in the world: The rope-walk for making cables, and the
forges for anchors and other iron-work, bear a proportion to
the rest; as also the wet-dock for keeping masts, and yards of
the greatest size, where they lye sunk in the water to preserve
them, the boat-yard, the anchor yard; all like the whole,
monstrously great and extensive, and are not easily describ'd.

106 DEFOE'S TOUR

We come next to the stores themselves, for which all this
provision is made; and first, to begin with the ships that are
laid up there: The sails, the rigging, the ammunition, guns,
great and small-shot, small-arms, swords, cutlasses, half pikes,
with all the other furniture belonging to the ships that ride at
their moorings in the river Medway: These take up one part of
the place, having separate buildings, and store-houses appro-
priated to them, where the furniture of every ship lies in par-
ticular ware-houses by themselves, and may be taken out on
the most hasty occasion without confusion, fire excepted.

N.B. The powder is generally carry'd away to particular
magazines to avoid disaster.

Besides these, there are store-houses for laying up the furniture,
and stores for ships; but which are not appropriated, or do not
belong (as it is express'd by the officers) to any particular ship;
but lye ready to be delivered out for the furnishing other ships
to be built, or for repairing and supplying the ships already
there, as occasion may require.

For this purpose there are separate and respective magazines
of pitch, tarr, hemp, flax, tow, rosin, oyl, tallow; also of sail
cloth, canvas, anchors, cables, standing and running rigging,
ready fitted, and cordage not fitted; with all kinds of ship-
chandlery necessaries, such as blocks, tackles, runners, &c. with
the cooks, boatswains, and gunners stores, and also anchors of
all sizes, grapnells, chains, bolts, and spikes, wrought and
unwrought iron, cast-iron work, such as potts, caldrons, furnaces,
&c. also boats, spare-masts and yards; with a great quantity
of lead and nails, and other necessaries, (too many to be
enumerated) whose store looks as if it were inexhaustible.

To observe these things deliberately, one wou'd almost
wonder what ships they were, and where they should be found,
which cou'd either for building, or repairing, firing, or refiting,
call for such a quantity of all those things; but when, on the
other hand, one sees the ships, and considers their dimension,
and consequently the dimension of all things which belong to
them; how large, how strong every thing must be; how much
of the materials must go to the making every thing proportion-
able to the occasion, the wonder would change its prospect,
and one would be as much amaz'd to think how and where
they should be supply'd.

The particular government of these yards, as they are call'd,
is very remarkable, the commissioners, clerks, accomptants,
&c. within doors, the store-keepers, yard-keepers, dock-keepers,

KENT 107

watchmen, and all other officers without doors, with the sub-
ordination of all officers one to another respectively, as their
degree and offices require, is admirable. The watchmen are set
duly every night at stated and certain pkces, within the several
yards, with every one a bell over his head, which they ring or
toll every hour, giving so many strokes as the hour reckons,
and then one taking it from another through every part of the
yard, and of all the yards, makes the watching part be perform'd
in a very exact and regular manner. In the river there is a
guard-boat, which, as the main guard in a garrison, goes the
grand-rounds at certain times, to see that every centinel does
his duty on board the ships; these go by every ship in the river,
and see that the people on board are at their post: If the ship
does not challenge, that is to say, If the man plac'd to look out
does not call, Who comes there? the guard-boat boards them
immediately, to examine who is deficient in their duty.

They told us an odd story of a guard-boat which having not
been challeng'd by the person who ought to have been walking
on the forecastle of the ship, boarded them on the bow, and
as the boat's crew was entering the ship by the fore-chains
they found a man fallen over board, but the lap of his coat
catching in a block, was drawn so hard in by the running of
the rope in the block, that it held the man fast; but he was
fallen so low, that his head and arms hung in the water, and
he was almost drown'd: However it seems he was not quite
dead; so that catching hold of him, and pulling him out of the
water, they saved his life: But they added, as the main part
of the story, that the man could never give any account of his
disaster, or how he came to fall over-board, only said that it
must be the Devil that threw him over-board, for nothing else
could do it. How true this passage may be, I do not undertake
to enter upon the debate of.

The expedition that has been sometimes used here in fitting
out men of war, is very great, and as the workmen relate it,
'tis indeed incredible; particularly, they told us. That the Roy ail
Sovereign, a first rate of 106 guns, was riding at her moorings,
entirely unrigg'd, and nothing but her three masts standing,
as is usual when a ship is layM up, and that she was completely
rigg'd, all her masts up, her yards put too, her sails bent, anchors
and cables on board, and the ship sailed down to Blade-Stakes
in three days, Sir Cloudesly Shovell being then her captain.

I do not vouch the thing, but when I consider, first, that
every thing lay ready in her store-houses, and wanted nothing

io8 DEFOE'S TOUR

but to be fetch'd out and carry'd on board; a thousand or
fifteen hundred men to be employ'd in it and more if they were
wanted; and every man, knowing his business perfectly well,
boats, carriages, pullies, tacklers, cranes, and hulk all ready,
I do not know, but it might be done in one day if it was try'd;
certain it is, the dexterity of the English sailors in those things
is not to be match'd by the world.

The building-yards, docks, timber-yard, deal-yard, mast-yard,
gun-yard, rope-walks; and all the other yards and places, set
apart for the works belonging to the navy, are like a well ordered
city; and tho' you see the whole place as it were hi the utmost
hurry, yet you see no confusion, every man knows his own
business; the master builders appoint the working, or converting,
as they call it, of every piece of timber; and give to the other
head workmen, or foremen their moulds for the squaring and
cutting out of every piece, and placing it in its proper byrth
(so they call it) in the ship that is in building, and every hand is
busy in pursuing those directions, and so in all the other works.

It is about sixteen or eighteen miles from Rochester Bridge
to Sheerness Fort by water on the river Medway, of this it is
about fourteen miles to Black-Stakes, the channel is so deep
all the way, the banks soft, and the reaches of the river so
short, that in a word, 'tis the safest and best harbour in the
world; and we saw two ships of eighty guns, each riding a
float at low water within musquet-shot of Rochester Bridge.
The ships ride as in a mill-pond, or a wet-dock, except that
being moor'd at the chains, they swing up and down with the
tide; but as there is room enough, so they are moor'd in such
manner, that they cannot swing foul of one another; 'tis as safe
(I say) as in a wet-dock, nor did I ever hear of any accident
that befel any of the king's ships here, I mean by storms and
weather; except in that dreadful tempest in 1703, when one
ship, (viz.) the Royal Catherine was driven on shoar, and
receiving some damage sunk, and the ship also being old, could
not be weigh'd again; but this was such a storm as never was
known before, and 'tis hoped the like may never be known again.

There are two castles on the shore of this river, the one at
Upnore, where there is a good platform of guns, and which
guards two reaches of the river, and is supposed to defend all
the ships which ride above, between that and the bridge; also
on the other shore is Gillingham Castle, form'd for the same
purpose, and well furnish'd with guns which command the
river, besides which there is a fort or platform of guns at a

KENT 109

place calTd the swamp and another at Cockham Wood. But
all these are added, or at least additions made to them, since
the time that the Dutch made that memorable attempt upon
the royal navy in this river (viz.) on the 22d of June, in the
year 1667; for at that time all was left unguarded, and as it
were, secure; there were but four guns that could be used at
Upnore, and scarce so many at Gillingham, the carriages being
rotten and broke; and in a word, every thing concurring to
invite the enemy. There were about twelve guns at the Isle of
Shepey, where since, Sheerness Fort is built; but the Dutch
soon beat them from those guns, and made the place too hot
for them, dismounting also most of the guns, after which they
went boldly up to Black-Stakes with their whole squadron;
and after that seven of their biggest men of war went up as
high as Upnore, where they did what mischief they could, and
went away again, carrying off the Royal Charles, a first rate
ship of 100 guns, and burning the London, and several others,
besides the damaging most of the ships which were within their
reach; and all things considered, it was a victory, that they
went away without ruining all the rest of the navy that was in
that river.

But as this is a dull story in it self, so it is none of my present
business farther than to introduce what follows; namely, That
this allarm gave England such a sense of the consequence of
the river Medway, and of the docks and yards at Chatham, and
of the danger the royal navy lay exposed to there, that all
these doors which were open then, are lock'd up and sufficiently
barr'd since that time; and 'tis not now in the power of any
nation under heaven, no, tho' they should be masters at sea,
unless they were masters at land too at the same time, to give
us such another affront; for besides all the castles, lines of
guns, and platforms on each side the river Medway, as we go
up, as above; there is now a royal fort built at the point of the
Isle of Shepey, calTd Sheerness, which guards that entrance
into the river: This is a regular, and so compleat a fortification,
and has such a line of heavy cannon commanding the mouth
of the river, that no man of war, or fleet of men of war, would
attempt to pass by as the Dutch did; or at least cou'd not effect
it without hazard of being torn to pieces by those batteries. ^

SHEERNESS is not only a fortress, but a kind of town, with
several streets in it, and inhabitants of several sorts; but chiefly
such whose business obliges them to reside here: The officers
of the ordnance have here apartments, and an office, they being

no DEFOE'S TOUR

often oblig'd to be here many days together; especially in time
of war, when the rendezvous of the fleet is at the Nore, to see
to the furnishing every ship with military stores as need requires,
and to cheque the officers of the ships in their demands of those
stores, and the like.

Here is also a yard for building ships, with a dock; the reason
of which, is to repair any ship speedily that may meet with
any accident, either riding at the Nore, or in any service at sea
near the river. But then 'tis to be observ'd, that those are but
fifth and sixth rate ships, small frigats, yatches, and such
vessels; at biggest, nothing above a fourth rate can come in
here. The Sheerness galley, as I am told, was built here, and
had her name on that occasion. This yard is a late thing also,
and built many years since the fort.

This fort commands only the entrance into the Medway, or
that branch of the Medway, properly, which they call West-
Swale: The East-Swale, not navigable by ships of force, goes in
by the town of Queenborough, passes east, makes the Isle of
Shepey, parting it on the south side, and opens to the sea, near
Feversham, and Swale-Cliff, and is therefore of small conse-
quence. As for the expression of a certain author, that Sheer-
ness divides the mouth of the two rivers, Thames and Medway,
'tis not said for want of ignorance, and cannot be true in fact;
the mouth of the Medway opening into the Thames, and the
mouth of the Thames, not being within twenty miles of it,
(viz.) from the Nase and North-Foreland.

At the south-west point of the Isle of Shepey, where the
East-Swale parts from the West, and passes on, as above,
stands a town memorable for nothing, but that which is rather
a dishonour to our country than otherwise: Namely, Queen-
borough, a miserable, dirty, decay'd, poor, pitiful, fishing town;
yet vested with corporation priviledges, has a mayor, aldermen,
&c. and his worship the mayor has his mace carry 'd before him
to church, and attended in as much state and ceremony as
the mayor of a town twenty times as good: I remember when
I was there, Mr. Mayor was a butcher, and brought us a shoulder
of mutton to our inn himself in person, which we bespoke for
our dinner, and afterwards he sat down and drank a bottle of
wine with us.

But that which is still worse, and which I meant in what
I said before, is, that this town sends two burgesses to Par-
liament, as many as the borough of Southwark, or the city of
Westminster: Tho' it may be presumed all the inhabitants are

KENT in

not possess'd of estates answerable to the rent of one good
house in either of those places I last mentioned:^ The chief
business of this town, as I could understand, consists in ale-
houses, and oyster-catchers.

Here we took boat, and went up the East-Swale to a town,
which lies, as it were hid, in the country, and among the creeks;
for 'tis out of the way, and almost out of sight, as well by water
as by land, I mean Milton; it lyes up so many creeks and wind-
ings of the water, that nobody sees it by water, but they who
go on purpose out of the way to it; and as to the road, it lyes
also about a mile on the left-hand of the great road, as we pass
thro' Sittingbourn, so that no body sees it on that side neither,
unless they go on purpose out of the road to it; and yet it is a
large town, has a considerable market, and especially for corn,
and fruit and provisions, which they send to London by water.

From hence following the coast, and the great road together,
for they are still within view of one another, we come to Fever-
sham, a large populous, and as some say, a rich town: Tho'
here is no particular remarkable trade, either for manufacture
or navigation; the principal business we found among them,
was fishing for oysters, which the Dutch fetch hence in such
extraordinary quantities, that when I was there, we found
twelve large Dutch hoys and doggers lying there to load oysters;
and some times, as they told us, there are many more: This is
greatly to the advantage of the place, as it employs abundance
of men and boats in drudging for the oysters, which they catch
in great plenty, in the mouth of the East-Swale; which, as I said
above, enters in this part of the country into the sea, and opens
very wide.

It was at the mouth of this Swale, namely, at Shell-Ness, so
calTd from the abundance of oyster-shells always lying there,
that the smack in which the late King James II. was embark'd
for his escape into France, ran on shoar, and being boarded ^by
the fishermen, the king was taken prisoner; and I must mention
it to the reproach of the people of Feversham, let the conduct
of that unfortunate prince be what it will, that the fishermen and
rabble can never be excused, who treated the king, even after
they were told who he was, with the utmost indecency^ using
his majesty; (for he was then their sovereign, ^even in the
acknowledged sense of his enemies) I say, using him with such
indignity in his person, such insolence in their behaviour, and
giving him such opprobrious and abusive language, and search-
ing him in the rudest and most indecent manner, and indeed
* E sao

H2 DEFOE'S TOUR

rifling him; that the king himself said, he was never more
apprehensive of his life than at that time. He was afterwards
carry 1 d by them up to the town, where he was not much better
treated for some time, till some neighbouring gentlemen in the
county came in, who understood their duty better, by whom
he was at least preservM from farther violence, till coaches and
a guard came from London, by the Prince of Orange's order,
to bring him with safety and freedom to London; where he was
at least for the present much better received, as in the history
of those times is to be seen.

While I was near this town some years ago, a most surprising
accident happen' d, namely, the blowing up of a powder-mill,
which stood upon the river, close to the town; the blast was
not only frightful, but it shatter 1 d the whole town, broke the
windows, blew down chimneys, and gable-ends not a few; also
several people were kilFd at the powder-house it self, tho' not
any, as I remember, in the town: but what was most remarkable
in it all, was, that the eldest son of the master of the powder-
mill, a youth of about fifteen years of age, who was not in the
mill, or near it, when it blew up; but in a boat upon the river,
rowing cross for his diversion, was kilTd by a piece of the
building of the mill, which blew up into the air by the force of
the powder, and fell down upon him in the boat : I know nothing
else this town is remarkable for, except the most notorious
smuggling trade, carry' d on partly by the assistance of the
Dutch, in their oyster-boats, and partly by other arts, in which
they say, the people hereabouts are arriv'd to such a proficiency,
that they are grown monstrous rich by that wicked trade; nay,
even the owling trade (so they call the clandestine exporting
of wool) has seem'd to be transposed from Rumney Marsh to
this coast, and a great deal of it had been carry'd on between
the mouth of the East-Swale and the North-Foreland.

As to the landing goods here from Holland and France, such
as wine and brandy from the latter, and pepper, tea, coffee,
callicoes, tobacco, and such goods, (the duties of which being
very high in England, had first been drawn back by debentures)
that black trade has not only been carry'd on here, as I was
informed, but on both sides the river, on the Essex as well as
the Kentish shores, of which I shall speak again in its place.

From this East Swale, and particularly from these last three
towns, Queenborough, Milton, and Feversham, the fish-market
at Billingsgate is supply'd with several sorts of fish; but par-
ticularly with the best and largest oysters, such as they call

KENT 113

stewing oysters: which are generally call'd also Milton Oysters;
some of which are exceeding large, as also with a very great
quantity of others of a lesser size, as they are from the Essex
side, with a smaller and greener sort, call'd Wallfleot; so that
the whole city of London is chiefly supplied with oysters from
this part of the Thames.

From hence also are sent by water to London very great
quantities of fruit; that is to say, apples and cherries; which
are produced in this county, more than in any county in England,
especially cherries; and this leads me to cross the hills from
Milton to Maidstone, a town on the river Medway, about ten
miles distant.

This is a considerable town, very populous, and the inhabi-
tants generally wealthy; 'tis the county town, and the river
Medway is navigable to it by large hoys, of fifty to sixty tuns
burthen, the tide flowing quite up to the town; round this
town are the largest cherry orchards, and the most of them that
are in any part of England; and the gross of the quantity of
cherries, and the best of them which supply the whole city ^ of
London come from hence, and are therefore call'd Kentish
cherries.

Here likewise, and in the country adjacent, are great quan-
tities of hops planted, and this is call'd the Mother of Hop
Grounds in England; being the first place in England where
hops were planted in any quantity, and long before any were
planted at Canterbury, tho' that be now supposed to be the
chief place in England, as shall be observ'd in its place: These
were the hops, I suppose, which were planted at the beginning
of the Reformation, and which gave occasion to that old distich:

Hops, Reformation, bays, and beer,
Came into England all in a year.

Maidstone is eminent for the plenty of provisions, and rich-
ness of lands in the country all round it, and for the best market
in the county, not Rochester, no not Canterbury excepted.

From this town, and the neighbouring parts, London is
supplied with more particulars than from any single market
town in England, which I mention in pursuance of my first
resolution of observing, how every part of England furnishes
something to the city of London.

i. From the wild of Kent, which begins but about six miles
off and particularly from that part which lyes this way; they
bring the large Kentish bullocks, fam'd for being generally all

H4 DEFOE'S TOUR

red, and with their horns crooked inward, the two points
standing one directly against the other, they are counted the
largest breed in England.

2. From the same country are brought great quantities of
the largest timber for supply of the king's yards at Chattham,
and often to London; most of which comes by land carriage
to Maidstone.

3. From the country adjoining to Maidstone also, is a very
great quantity of corn brought up to London, besides hops and
cherries, as above.

4. Also a kind of paving stone, about eight to ten inches
square, so durable that it scarce ever wears out; 'tis used to
pave court-yards, and passages to gentlemens houses, being
the same the Royal Exchange at London is pav'd with, which
has never yet wanted the least repair.

5. Also fine white sand for the glass-houses, esteem'd the best
in England for melting into flint-glass, and looking glass-plates;
and for the stationer's use also, vulgarly calTd writing-sand.

6. Also very great quantities of fruit, such as Kentish pipins,
runetts, &c. which come up as the cherries do, whole hoy-
loads at a time to the wharf, calTd the Three Cranes, in London;
which is the greatest pipin market perhaps in the world.

At Maidstone you begin to converse with gentlemen, and
persons of rank of both sexes, and some of quality: All that
side of the county which I have mentioned already, as it is
marshy, and unhealthy, by its situation among the waters;
so it is embarass'd with business, and inhabited chiefly by men
of business, such as ship-builders, fisher-men, seafaring-men,
and husband-men, or such as depend upon them, and very
few families of note are found among them. But as soon as
we come down Boxley Hill from Rochester, or HolHngbourn-
Hill, from Milton, and descend from the poor chalky downs,
and deep foggy marshes, to the wholesome rich soil, the well
wooded, and well water' d plain on the banks of the Medway,
we find the country every where spangl'd with populous
villages, and delicious seats of the nobility and gentry; and
especially on the north-side of the river, beginning at Aylesford,
on the Medway, and looking east towards the sea: This Ayles-
ford was formerly the seat of Sir John Banks, and since de-
scended, by his daughter, to Heneage Lord Finch, brother to
the Earl of Nottingham, and created Earl of Aylesford, which
estate he came to in right of his said lady: the country this

KENT 115

way, I say, is full of gentlemens houses, reckoning from this
Aylesford, below Maidstone, on the Medway to Eastwell, near
Ashford, the seat of the Earl of Winchelsea; another noble
family of the name of Finch also; tho' not nearly ally'd to the
Nottingham house.

Among these are the antient families of Fane, Colepeper,
Deerham, Honywood, Wotton, Roberts, Hales, and others, with
some good families extinct and gone, whose names however
remain in memory.

This neighbourhood of persons of figure and quality, makes
Maidstone a very agreeable place to live in, and where a man
of letters, and of manners, will always find suitable society,
both to divert and improve himself; so that here is, what is
not often found, namely, a town of very great business and
trade, and yet full of gentry, of mirth, and of good company.

It is to be recorded here for the honour of the gentry in this
part of England; that tho } they are as sociable and entertaining
as any people are, or can be desir*d to be, and as much fam'd
for good manners, and good humour; yet the new mode of
forming assemblies so much, and so fatally now in vogue, in
other parts of England, could never prevail here; and that tho*
there was an attempt made by some loose persons, and the
gentlemen, and ladies, did for a little while appear there; yet
they generally dislik'd the practice, soon declined to give their
company, as to a thing scandalous, and so it drop'd of course.

There is not much manufacturing in this county; what is
left, is chiefly at Canterbury, and in this town of Maidstone,
and the neighbourhood; the manufacture of this town is prin-
cipally in thread, that is to say, linnen thread, which they
make to pretty good perfection, tho' not extraordinary fine.
At Cranbrook, Tenterden, Goudhurst, and other villages there-
about, which are also in the neighbourhood of this part, on the
other side the Medway, there was once a very considerable
cloathing trade carry'd on, and the yeomen of Kent, of which
so much has been fam'd, were generally the inhabitants on that
side, and who were much enrich' d by that clothing trade; but
that trade is now quite decay* d, and scarce ten clothiers left
in all the county.

These clothiers and farmers, and the remains of them, upon
the general elections of members of parliament for the county,
show themselves still there, being ordinarily 14 or 1500 free-
holders brought from this side of the county; and who for the
plainness of their appearance, are calTd the gray coats of Kent;

n6 DEFOE'S TOUR

but are so considerable, that who ever they vote for is always
sure to carry it, and therefore the gentlemen are very careful
to preserve their interest among them.

This town of Maidstone is a peculiar of the Archbishoprick
of Canterbury, and the Archbishop for the time being, is the
proper incumbent, or parson of the parish, and puts in a curate
to officiate for him. Here is the county gaol also, and generally
the assizes, and always the elections are held here: Here was
a hot action in the time of the Civil Wars, between a party
of gentlemen who took arms for the king, and who being defeated
here, march' d boldly towards London, as if they had intended
to go directly thither; but turn'd short, and to their enemies
surprise, unexpectedly crossed the Thames, and joining some
Essex gentlemen of the same party, went to Colchester, where
they suffered a furious siege and blockade; and defended the
town to the last extremity, as you have seen in my account
of that place.

In prosecution of my journey east, I went from hence to
Canterbury; of which town and its antiquities so much has
been said, and so accurately, that I need do no more than
mention it by recapitulation; for, as I have said, the antiquities,
and histories of particular places is not my business here, so
much as the present state of them. However I observe here.

1. That the first Christian bishop, if not the first Christian
preacher, that ever came to England, (for I know not what to
say to the story of Joseph of Arimathea, and his holy thorn
at Glassenbury) landed in this country, and settled in this
place; I mean St. Augustin, sent over by Gregory, Bishop of
Rome. This Gregory it seems was a true primitive Christian
Bishop of Rome; not such as since are called so; long before they
assum'd the title of popes, or that usurp'd honour of Universal
Bishop.

2. That, seven Bishops of Canterbury, from St. Augustine,
inclusive of himself, lye bury'd here in one vault.

3. That Thomas Becket, or Thomas a Becket, as some call
him, arch-bishop of this see, and several arch-bishops before
him, plagued, insulted, and tyranniz'd over the Kings of Eng-
land, their sovereigns, in an unsuff erable manner.

4. That the first of these, having made himself intolerable
to King Henry II, by his obstinacy, pride and rebellion, was
here murther'd by the connivance, and as some say, by the
express order of the king, and that they shew his blood upon
the pavement to this day.

KENT 117

5 That he was afterwards canoniz'd, and his shrine made
the greatest idol of the world; and they show the stone-steps
ascending to his shrine, worn away to a slope, by the knees of
the pilgrims, and ignorant people who came thither to pray to
him, and to desire him to pray for them.

6. That the bodies of King Henry IV and of Edward the
Black Prince are buried here, and the magnificent effigies of the
latter very curiously carv'd and engrav'd, lyes on his tomb,
or monument; also that King Stephen should have lain here,
but on some scruple of the monks, the corpse was stopt short on
the road, and was afterwards buried at Feversham, about
seven miles off. What the monks objected, or whether they
had no money offered them, is not recorded with the rest of
the story.

7. That the immense wealth offer'd by votaries, and pilgrims,
for several ages to the altar, or shrine of this mock saint, Thomas
Becket, was such, that Erasmus Roterdamus, who was in the
repository and saw it, relates of it, That the whole place glitter'd
and shone with gold and diamonds.

8. That all this immense treasure, with the lands and revenues
of the whole monastery were seiz'd upon, and taken away by
King Henry VIII, at the general suppression of religious houses,
except such as are annex'd to the Dean and Chapter, and to the
revenue of the arch-bishoprick, which are not large.

The church is a noble pile of building indeed, and looks
venerable and majestick at a distance, as well as when we come
nearer to it. The old monastery of all, with the church there,
dedicated to St. Augustine, and in the porch of which St. Augus-
tine himself, with the six bishops above mentioned lye buried,
stands at, or rather stood at a distance, and the ruins of it
shew the place sufficiently; what remains of the old buildings
about Christ-Church, or the cathedral, are principally the
cloyster, and the bishop's palace, which however is rather to be
call'd a building raised from the old house, than a part of it.

Under the church is a large Protestant French church, given
first by Queen Elizabeth to tne Walloons, who fled hither from
the persecution of the Duke D'Alva, and the King of France;
and whose number has been since very much encreased by the
particular cruelty of Louis XIV.

The close or circumvallation, where the houses of the pre-
bendaries, and other persons belonging to the cathedral stand,
is very spacious and fair, and a great many very good houses
are built in it, and some with good gardens; where those gentle-

n8 DEFOE'S TOUR

men live at large, and among whoin a very good neighbourhood
is kept up; as for the town, its antiquity seems to be its greatest
beauty: Tlie houses are truly antient, and the many ruins of
churches, chapels, oratories, and smaller cells of religious people,
makes the place look like a general ruin a little recover'd.

The city will scarce bear being call'd populous, were it not
for two or three thousand French Protestants, which, including
men, women and children, they say there are in it, and yet they
tell me the number of these decreases daily.

The employment of those refugees was chiefly broad silk
weaving; but that trade was so decay 'd before the first Act
for Prohibiting the Wearing of East India Silks pass'd, that
there were not twenty broad looms left in the city, of near
three hundred, that had formerly been there; upon the passing
that Act, the trade revived again and the number of master
workmen encreased, and the masters encreased; and the
masters which were there before, encreasing their works also,
the town filTd again, and a great many looms were employ'd;
but after this by the encroaching of the printed callicoes,
chints, &c. and the prevailing of the smuggling trade as above,
the silk trade decay' d a second time. But now the use and
wear of printed callicoes and chints, being by Act of Parliament
severely prohibited, 'tis expected the silk trade at Canterbury
will revive a third time, and the inhabitants promise themselves
much from it.

But the great wealth and encrease of the city of Canterbury,
is from the surprizing encrease of the hop-grounds all round the
place; it is within the memory of many of the inhabitants now
living, and that none of the oldest neither, that there was not an
acre of ground planted with hops in the whole neighbourhood,
or so few as not to be worth naming; whereas I was assured that
there are at this time near six thousand acres of ground so
planted, within a very few miles of the city; I do not vouch the
number, and I confess it seems incredible, but I deliver it as
I receiv'd it.

It is observed that the ground round this city proves more
particularly fruitful for the growth of hops than of any other
production, which was not at first known; but which, upon its
being discovered, set all the world, speaking in the language
of a neighbourhood, a digging up their grounds and planting;
so that now they may say without boasting, there is at Canter-
bury the greatest plantation of hops in the whole island.

The river Stour was made navigable to this city, by virtue

KENT 119

of an Act of Parliament in the reign of King Henry VIII, but
the person who undertook it, not meeting with encouragement,
and failing in the carrying it on, the locks and sluices are all
ran to decay, and the citizens are oblig'd to fetch all their
heavy goods, either from Fordwich, three miles off, or from
WTiitstable seven miles off; the latter they chuse for such heavy
goods as come from London; as oyl, wine, grocery, &c. because
'tis the less hazard by sea; but as for coals, deals, &c. they
come by way of Sandwich, and are brought up the river to
Fordwich, as above.

In the neighbourhood of this city are some antient families,
as Sir Tho. Hales, the Lord Strangford, Sir Henry Oxenden, and
several others, the two former Roman; also Sir George Rook,
famous for his services at sea against the French; the kst of
which was in the Streights, where the French fleet was com-
manded by the Count de Tourville, Admiral of France; where
both sides fought with such equal gallantry, and resolution,
and the strength of the fleets were so equal, tho' the French
the most in number of the two, that neither seem'd to seek a
second engagement; and of which the following lines were
made by some of the merry wits of that time.

The great Tourville Sir George did beat,

The great Sir George beat him;
But if they chance again to meet,

George will his jacket trim:
They both did fight, they both did beat,

They both did run away;
They both did strive again to meet,

The clean contrary way.

The shore from Whitstable, and the East-Swale, affords
nothing remarkable but sea-marks, and small towns on the
coast, till we come to Margate and the North Foreland; the
town of Margate is eminent for nothing that I know of, but
for King William's frequently landing here in his returns from
Holland, and for shipping a vast quantity of corn for London
Market, most, if not all of it, the product of the Isle of Thanet,
in which it stands.

On the north-east point of this land, is the promontory, or
head-land which I have often mentioned, call'd the North
Foreland; which, by a line drawn due north to the Nase in
Essex, about six miles short of Harwich, makes the mouth of
the river of Thames, and the Port of London: As soon as any
vessels pass this Foreland from London, they are properly said
to be in the open sea; if to the north, they enter the German

120 DEFOE'S TOUR

Ocean, if to the south, the Chanel, as 'tis call'd, that is the
narrow seas between England and France; and all the towns
or harbours before we come this length, whether on the Kentish
or Essex shoar, are call'd members of the Port of London.

From this point westward, the first town of note is Ramsgate,
a small port, the inhabitants are mighty fond of having us call
it Roman's-Gate; pretending that the Romans under Julius
Caesar made their first attempt to land here, when he was
driven back by a storm; but soon returned, and coming on
shore, with a good body of troops beat back the Britains, and
fortify'd his camp, just at the entrance of the creek, where the
town now stands; all which may be true for ought any one
knows, but is not to be prov'd, either by them or any one else;
and is of so little concern to us, that it matters nothing whether
here or at Deal, where others pretend it was.

It was from this town of Ramsgate, that a fellow of gigantick
strength, tho' not of extraordinary stature, came abroad in the
world, and was call'd the English Sampson, and who suffer'd
men to fasten the strongest horse they could find to a rope,
and the rope round his loins, sitting on the ground, with his
feet strait out against a post, and no horse could stir him;
several other proofs of an incredible strength he gave before
the king, and abundance of the nobility at Kensington, which
no other man could equal; but his history was very short, for
in about a year he disappear'd, and we heard no more of him
since.

Sandwich is the next town, lying in the bottom of a bay,
at the mouth of the river Stour, an old, decay' d, poor, miserable
town, of which when I have said that it is an antient town,
one of the Cinque Ports, and sends two members to Parliament;
I have said all that I think can be worth any bodies reading of
the town of Sandwich.

From hence to Deal is about miles. This place is famous

for the road for shipping, so well known all over the trading
world, by the name of the Downs, and where almost all ships
which arrive from foreign parts for London, or go from London
to foreign parts, and who pass the Channel, generally stop;
the homeward-bound to dispatch letters, send lieu: merchants
and owners the good news of their arrival, and set their pas-
sengers on shoar, and the like; and the outward-bound to receive
their last orders, letters, and farewells from owners, and friends,
take in fresh provisions, &c.

Sometimes, and when the wind presents fair, ships do come

KENT 121

in here, and pass thro* at once, without coming to an anchor;
for they are not oblig*d to stop, but for their own convenience:
This place would be a very wild and dangerous road for ships,
were it nor for the South Foreland, a head of land, forming the
east point of the Kentish shoar; and is called, the South, as its
situation respects the North Foreland; and which breaks the
sea off, which would otherwise come rowling up from the west,
this and a flat, or the bank of sands, which for three leagues
together, and at about a league, or league and half distance
run parallel with the shore, and are dry at low water, these
two I say, break all the force of the sea, on the east and south,
and south-west; so that the Downs is counted a very good road.

And yet on some particular winds, and especially, if they
over-blow, the Downs proves a very wild road; ships are driven
from their anchors, and often run on shoar, or are forced on the
said sands, or into Sandwich-Bay, or Ramsgate-Peer, as above,
in great distress; this is particularly when the wind blows hard
at S.E. or at E. by N. or E.N.E. and some other points; and
terrible havock has been made in the Downs at such times.

But the most unhappy account that can be given of any
disaster in the Downs, is in the time of that terrible tempest,
which we call by way of distinction, the Great Storm, being on
ayth of November 1703, unhappy in particular; for that there
chanced just at that time to be a great part of the royal navy
under Sir Cloudesly Shovel, just come into the Downs, in their
way to Chatham, to be laid up.

Five of the biggest ships had the good hap to push thro' the
Downs the day before, finding the wind then blow very hard,
and were come to an anchor at the Gunfleet; and had they had
but one fair day more, they had been all safe at the Nore, or
in the river Medway at Blackstakes.

There remained in the Downs about twelve sail when this
terrible blast began, at which time England may be said to have
received the greatest loss that ever happened to the royal
navy at one time; either by weather, by enemies, or by any
accident whatsoever; the short account of it, as they shewed
it me in the town, I mean of what happened in the Downs,
is as follows.

The Northumberland, a third rate, carrying 70 guns, and
353 men; the Restoration, a second rate, carrying 76 guns, and
386 men; the Sterling-Castle, a second rate, carrying 80 guns,
and 400 men, but had but 349 men on board; and the Mary,
a third rate, of 64 guns, having 273 men on board; these were

122 DEFOE'S TOUR

all lost, with all their men, high and low; except only one man
out of the Mary, and 70 men out of the Sterling-Castle, who
were taken up by boats from Deal.

All this was besides the loss of merchants ships, which was
exceeding great, not here only, but in almost aU the ports in
the south, and west of England; and also in Ireland, which
I shall have occasion to mention again in another place.

From hence we pass over a pleasant champain country, with
the sea, and the coast of France, clear in your view; and by the
very gates of the antient castle (to the town) of Dover: As
we go, we pass by Deal Castle, and Sandown Castle, two small
works, of no strength by land, and not of much use by sea;
but however maintained by the government for the ordinary
services of salutes, and protecting small vessels, which can
lye safe under their cannon from picaroons, privateers, &c. in
time of war.

Neither Dover nor its castle has any thing of note to be
said of them, but what is in common with their neighbours;
the castle is old, useless, decay'd, and serves for little; but to
give the title and honour of government to men of quality,
with a salary, and sometimes to those that want one.

The town is one of the Cinque Ports, sends members to
Parliament, who are calTd barons, and has it self an ill repair* d,
dangerous, and good for little harbour and peir, very chargeable
and little worth: The packets for France go off here, as also those
for Nieuport, with the mails for Flanders, and all those ships
which carry freights from New- York to Holland, and from
Virginia to Holland, come generally hither, and unlade their
goods, enter them with, and show them to the custom-house
officers, pay the duties, and then enter them again by certificate,
reload them, and draw back the duty by debenture, and so they
go away for Holland.

In the time of the late war with France, here was a large
victualling-office kept for the use of the navy, and a commis-
sioner appointed to manage it, as there was also at Chatham,
Portsmouth, and other places; but this is now unemployed:
The Duke of Queensberry in Scotland, who was lord commis-
sioner to the Parliament there, at the time of making the Union,
was after the said Union created Duke of Dover, which title is
possess'd now by his son.

From this place the coast affords nothing of note; but some
other small Cinque-Ports, such as Hith and Rumney, and Rye;
and as we pass to them Folkstone, eminent chiefly for a multitude

KENT 123

of fishing-boats belonging to it, which are one part of the year
employed in catching mackarel for the city of London: The
Folkstone men catch them, and the London and Barking
mackarel-smacks, of which I have spoken at large in Essex,
come down and buy them, and fly up to market with them,
with such a cloud of canvas, and up so high that one would
wonder their small boats cou'd bear it and should not overset:
About Michaelmas these Folkstone barks, among others from
Shoreham, Brighthelmston and Rye, go away to Yarmouth,
and Leostoff, on the coast of Suffolk and Norfolk, to the fishing-
fau-j and catch herrings for the merchants there, of which
I have spoken at large in my discourse on that subject.

As I rode along this coast, I perceiv'd several dragoons
riding, officers, and others arm'd and on horseback, riding
always about as if they were huntsmen beating up their game;
upon inquiry I found their diligence was employ'd in quest of
the owlers, as they call them, and sometimes they catch some
of them; but when I came to enquire farther, I found too, that
often times these are attack'd in the night, with such numbers,
that they dare not resist, or if they do, they are wounded and
beaten, and sometimes lalTd; and at other times are obliged, as
it were, to stand still, and see the wool carry' d off before their
faces, not daring to meddle; and the boats taking it in from the
very horses backs, go immediately off, and are on the coast of
France, before any notice can be given of them, while the other
are as nimble to return with their horses to their haunts and
retreats, where they are not easily found out.

But I find so many of these desperate fellows are of late
taken up, by the courage and vigilance of the soldiers, that the
knots are very much broken, and the owling-trade much
abated, at least on that side; the French also finding means to
be supply'd from Ireland with much less hazard, and at very
little more expence.

From Rumney-Marsh the shoar extends it self a great way
into the sea, and makes that point of land, calTd Dengey-Ness;
between this point of land and Beachy, it was that the French
in the height of their naval glory took the English and Dutch
fleets at some disadvantage, offering them battle, when the
French were so superior in number, that it was not consistent
with humane prudence to venture an engagement, the French
being ninety two ships of the line of battle, and the English
and Dutch, put together, not sixty sail; the French ships also
generally bigger: yet such was the eagerness of both the r

124 DEFOE'S TOUR

and Dutch seamen, and commanders, that it was not without
infinite murmurings, that Admiral Herbert stood away, and
call'd off the Dutch, who had the van, from engaging; the
English it seems believ'd themselves so superiour to the French
when they came to lye broad-side and broad-side, yard-arm
and yard-arm, as the seamen call it in an engagement, that
they would admit of no excuse for not fighting; tho' according
to all the rules of war, no admiral could justify hazarding the
royal navy on such terms; and especially the circumstances
of the time then considered, for the king was in Ireland, and
King James ready in France, if the English and Dutch fleets
had received a blow, to have embark' d with an army for Eng-
land, which perhaps would have hazarded the whole Revolution;
so that wise men afterwards, and as I have been told the king
himself upon a full hearing justify' d the conduct of Admiral
Herbert, and afterwards created him Earl of Torrington.

Here, or rather a little farther, we saw the bones of one of
the Dutch men of war, which was burnt and stranded by the
French in that action; the towns of Rye, Winchelsea, and
Hastings, have little in them to deserve more than a bare
mention; Rye would flourish again, if her harbour, which was
once able to receive the royal navy, cou'd be restor'd; but as
it is, the bar is so loaded with sand cast up by the sea, that
ships of 200 tun chuse to ride it out under Dengey or Beachy,
tho 3 with the greatest danger, rather than to run the hazard of
going into Rye for shelter: It is true there is now an Act of
Parliament pass'd for the restoring this port to its former state,
when a man of war of 70 guns might have safely gone in; but
'tis very doubtful, whether it will be effectual to the main end
or no, after so long a time.

Indeed our merchants ships are often put to great extremity
hereabout, for there is not one safe place for them to run into,
between Portsmouth and the Downs; whereas in former days,
Rye-Bay was an asylum, a safe harbour, where they could go
boldly in, and ride safe in all weathers, and then go to sea again
at pleasure.

From a little beyond Hastings to Bourn, we ride upon the
sands in a straight line for eighteen miles, all upon the coast
of Sussex, passing by Pemsey, or Pevensey Haven, and the mouth
of the river, which cometh from Battle, without so much as
knowing that there was a river, the tide being put, and all
the water of the ordinary chanel of the river sinking away
in the sands: This is that famous strand where William the

SUSSEX 125

Norman landed with his whole army; and near to which,
namely, at the town of Battle abovenamed, which is about
nine miles off, he fought that memorable fight with Harold,
then King of England; in which the fate of this nation was
determined, and where victory gave the crown to the Conqueror
and his race, of the particulars of all which, our histories are
full; this town of Battle is remarkable for little now, but for
making the finest gun-powder, and the best perhaps in Europe.
Near this town of Battle, they show us a hill with a beacon
upon it, which since the beacon was set up, indeed has been
caird Beacon Hill, as is usual in such cases; but was before that
calTd Standard-Hill, being the place where William the Con-
queror set up his great standard of defiance, the day before
the great battle with Harold and the English.

From the beginning of Rumney Marsh, that is to say, at
Sandgate, or Sandfoot Castle near Hith, to this place, the
country is a rich fertile soil, full of feeding grounds, and where
an infinite number of large sheep are fed every year, and sent
up to London market; these Rumney Marsh sheep, are counted
rather larger than the Leicester-shire and Lincolnshire sheep,
of which so much is said elsewhere.

Besides the vast quantity of sheep as above, abundance of
large bullocks are fed in this part of the country; and especially
those they call stalTd oxen, that is, house fed, and kept within
the farmers sheds or yards, all the latter season, where they
are fed for the winter market. This I noted, because these
oxen are generally the largest beef hi England.

From hence it was that, turning north, and traversing the
deep, dirty, but rich part of these two counties, I had the
curiosity to see the great foundaries, or iron-works, which are
in this county, and where they are carry* d on at such a pro-
digious expence of wood, that even in a country almost all
over-run with timber, they begin to complain of the consuming
it for those furnaces, and leaving the next age to want timber
for building their navies: I must own however, that I found
that complaint perfectly groundless, the three counties of Kent,
Sussex, and Hampshire, (all which lye contiguous to one another)
being one inexhaustible store-house of timber never to be
destroy* d, but by a general conflagration, and able at this time
to supply timber to rebuild all the royal navies in Europe, if
they were all to be destroyed, and set about the building them
together.

After I had fatigued my self in passing this deep and heavy

126 DEFOE'S TOUR

part of the country, I thought it would not be foreign to my
design, if I refresh'd my self with a view of Tunbridge- Wells,
which were not then above twelve miles out of my way.

When I came to the wells, which were five miles nearer to
me than the town, supposing me then at Battle to the southward
of them; I found a great deal of good company there, and that
which was more particular, was, that it happen'd to be at the
time when his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was there
with abundance of the nobility, and gentry of the country,
who to honour the prince's coming, or satisfy their own curiosity,
throng'd to that place; so that at first I found it very difficult
to get a lodging.

The prince appear'd upon the walks, went into the raffling
shops, and to every publick place, saw every thing, and let
every body see him, and went away, with the Duke of Dorset,
and other of his attendance for Portsmouth; so in two or three
days, things return'd all to their antient chanel, and Tunbridge
was just what it used to be.

The ladies that appear here, are indeed the glory of the
place; the coming to the Wells to drink the water is a meer
matter of custom; some drink, more do not, and few drink
physically: But company and diversion is in short the main
business of the place; and those people who have nothing to do
any where else, seem to be the only people who have any thing
to do at Tunbridge.

After the appearance is over at the Wells, (where the ladies
are all undress'd) and at the chapel, the company go home; and
as if it was another species of people, or a collection from
another place, you are surpriz'd to see the walks covered with
ladies compleatly dress'd and gay to profusion; where rich
cloths, jewels, and beauty not to be set out by (but infinitely
above) ornament, dazzles the eyes from one end of the range
to the other.

Here you have all the liberty of conversation in the world,
and any thing that looks like a gentleman, has an address
agreeable, and behaves with decency and good manners, may
single out whom he pleases, that does not appear engag*d, and
may talk, rally, be merry, and say any decent thing to them;
but all this makes no acquaintance, nor is it taken so, or under-
stood to mean so; if a gentleman desires to be more intimate,
and enter into any acquaintance particular, he must do it by
proper application, not by ordinary meeting on the walks,
for the ladies will ask no gentleman there, to go off the walk,

KENT AND SUSSEX 127

or invite any one to their lodgings, except it be a sort of ladies of
whom I am not now speaking.

As for gaming, sharping, intrieguing; as also fops, fools,
beaus, and the Eke, Tunbridge is as full of these, as can be
desired, and it takes off much of the diversion of those persons
of honour and virtue, who go there to be innocently recreated:
However a^man of character, and good behaviour cannot be
there any time, but he may single out such company as may
be suitable to him, and with whom he may be as merry as
heart can wish.

The air here is excellent good, the country healthful, and
the provisions of all sorts very reasonable: Particularly, they are
supply'd with excellent fish, and that of almost all sorts, from
Rye, and other towns on the sea-coast; and I saw a turbut of
near sol. weight sold there for 35.: In the season of mackarel,
they have them here from Hastings, within three hours of their
being taken out of the sea, and the difference which that makes
in their goodness, I need not mention.

They have likewise here abundance of wild-fowl, of the best
sorts; such as pheasant, partridge, woodcock, snipe, quails, also
duck, mallard, teal, &c. particularly they have from the South-
Downs, the bird call'd a wheatear, or as we may call them, the
English ortolans, the most delicious taste for a creature of one
mouthful, for 'tis little more, that can be imagin'd; but these
are very dear at Tunbridge, they are much cheaper at Seaford,
Lewis, and that side of the country.

In a word, Tunbridge wants nothing that can add to the
felicities of life, or that can make a man or woman compleatly
happy, always provided they have money; for without money
a man is no-body at Tunbridge, any more than at any other
place; and when any man finds his pockets low, he has nothing
left to think of, but to be gone, for he will have no diversion in
staying there any longer.

And yet Tunbridge also is a place in which a lady however
virtuous, yet for want of good conduct may as soon shipwreck
her character as in any part of England; and where, when she
has once injur'd her reputation, 'tis as hard to restore it; nay,
some say no lady ever recovered her character at Tunbridge, if
she first wounded it there: But this is to be added too, that a
lady very seldom suffers that way at Tunbridge, without some
apparent folly of her own; for that they do not seem so apt to
make havock of one another's reputation here, by tattle and
slander, as I think they do in some other places in the world;

128 DEFOE'S TOUR

particularly at Epsome, Hampstead, and such like places; which
I take to be, because the company who frequent Tunbridge,
seem to be a degree or two above the society of those other
places, and therefore are not so very apt, either to meddle
with other peoples affairs, or to censure if they do; both which
are the properties of that more gossiping part of the world.

In this I shall be much misunderstood, if it is thought I mean
the ladies only, for I must own I look just the other way; and
if I may be allow' d to use my own sex so coursly, it is really
among them that the ladies characters first, and oftnest receive
unjust wounds; and I must confess the malice, the reflections,
the busy meddling, the censuring, the tatling from place to
place, and the making havock of the characters of innocent
women, is found among the men gossips more than among
their own sex, and at the coffee-houses more than at the tea-
table; then among the women themselves, what is to be found
of it there, is more among the chamber-maids, than among their
mistresses; slander is a meanness below persons of honour and
quality, and to do injustice to the ladies, especially, is a degree
below those who have any share of breeding and sense: On this
account you may observe, 'tis more practis'd among the citizens
than among the gentry, and in country towns and villages,
more than in the city, and so on, till you come to the meer
canail, the common mobb of the street, and there, no reputation,
no character can shine without having dirt thrown upon it
every day: But this is a digression.

I left Tunbridge, for the same reason that I give, why others
should leave it, when they are in my condition; namely, that
I found my money almost gone; and tho' I had bills of credit
to supply my self in the course of my intended journey; yet
I had none there; so I came away, or as they call it there,
I retired; and came to Lewes, through the deepest, dirtiest, but
many ways the richest, and most profitable country in all that
part of England.

The timber I saw here was prodigious, as well in quantity
as in bigness, and seem'd in some places to be suffer' d to grow,
only because it was so far off of any navigation, that it was not
worth cutting down and carrying away; in dry summers, indeed,
a great deal is carry'd away to Maidstone, and other places on
the Medway; and sometimes I have seen one tree on a carriage,
which they call there a tug, drawn by two and twenty oxen,
and even then, 'tis carry'd so little a way, and then thrown
down, and left for other tugs to take up and carry on, that

SUSSEX 129

sometimes 'tis two or three year before it gets to Chatham;
for if once the rains come in, it stirs no more that year, and
sometimes a whole summer is not dry enough to make the
roads passable: Here I had a sight, which indeed I never saw
in any other part of England: Namely, that going to church
at a country village, not far from Lewis, I saw an ancient lady,
and a lady of very good quality, I assure you, drawn to church
in her coach with six oxen; nor was it done in frolic or humour,
but meer necessity, the way being so stiff and deep, that no
horses could go in it.

Lewis is a fine pleasant town, well built, agreeably scituated
in the middle of an open champaign country, and on the edge
of the South Downs, the pleasantest, and most delightful of
their kind in the nation; it lies on the bank of a little wholsome
fresh river, within twelve miles of the sea; but that which adds
to the character of this town, is, that both the town and the
country adjacent, is full of gentlemen of good families and
fortunes, of which the Pelhams may be named with the first,
whose chief was by King William made a baron, and whose
eldest son succeeding to the greatest part of the estate of that
English Crassus, the late Duke of Newcastle, has since brought
the title and honour of Newcastle to the house of Pelham.
Here are also the antient families of Gage, Shelly, &c. formerly
Roman, but now Protestant, with many others.

From this town, following still the range of the South Downs,
west; we ride in view of the sea, and on a fine carpet ground,
for about twelve miles to Bright Helmston, commonly calTd
Bredhemston, a poor fishing town, old built, and on the very
edge of the sea: Here again, as I mention'd at Folkstone
and Dover, the fisher-men having large barks go away to
Yarmouth, on the coast of Norfolk, to the fishing fair there,
and hire themselves for the season to catch herrings for
the merchants; and they tell us, that these make a very good
business of it.

The sea is very unkind to this town, and has by its continual
encroachments, so gain'd upon them, that in a little time more
they might reasonably expect it would eat up the whole town,
above 100 houses having been devoured by the water in a few
years past; they are now obliged to get a brief granted them, to
beg money all over England, to raise banks against the water;
the expence of which, the brief expresly says, will be eight
thousand pounds; which if one were to look on the town, would
seem to be more than all the houses in it are worth.

130 DEFOE'S TOUR

From hence, still keeping the coast close on the left, we come
to Shoreham, a sea-faring town, and chiefly inhabited by ship-
carpenters, ship-chandlers, and all the several trades depending
upon the building and fitting up of ships ; which is their chief
business; and they are fam'd for neat building, and for building
good sea-boats; that is to say, ships that are wholesome in the
sea, and good sailors; but for strong building, they do not come
up to Yarmouth, Ipswich, and the north.

The builders of ships seemed to plant here, chiefly because of
the exceeding quantity and cheapness of timber in the country
behind them; being the same wooded country I mentioned
above, which still continues thro' this county and the next also:
The river this town stands upon, tho j not navigable for large
vessels, yet serves them to bring down this large timber in
floats from Bramber, Stenning, and the country adjacent;
which is as it were aU covered with timber.

Here in the compass of about six miles are three burrough
towns, sending members to Parliament, (viz.) Shorebam,
Bramber, and Stenning: and Shoreham, Stenning are tolerable
little market-towns; but Bramber (a little ruin of an old castle
excepted) hardly deserves the name of a town, having not above
fifteen or sixteen families in it, and of them not many above
asking you an alms as you ride by; the chief est house in the
town is a tavern, and here, as I have been told, the vintner, or
ale-house-keeper rather, for he hardly deserved the name of a
vintner, boasted, that upon an election, just then over, he had
made 3ooZ. of one pipe of canary.

This is the second town in this county, where the elections
have been so scandalously mercenary; and of whom it is said,
there was in one king's reign more money spent at elections,
than all the lands in the parishes were worth, at twenty years
purchase; the other town I mean is Winchelsea, a town, if
it deserves the name of a town, which is rather the skeleton of
an ancient city than a real town, where the antient gates stand
near three miles from one another over the fields, and where
the ruins are so bury'd, that they have made good corn fields
of the streets, and the plow goes over the foundations, nay, over
the first floors of the houses, and where nothing of a town but
the destruction of it seems to remain; yet at one election for
this town the strife was such between Sir John Banks, father-
in-law to the Earl of Aylesford, and Colonel Draper, a neigh-
bouring gentleman, that I was told in the country the latter
spent noooZ. at one election, and yet lost it too; what the other

SUSSEX 131

spent who opposed him, may be guest at, seeing he that spent
most was always sure to carry it in those days.

Bramber is the very exemplification of this, with this differ-
ence only, namely, that at the former they have given it over,
at the latter it seems to be rather worse than ever.

Near Steyning, the famous Sir John Fagg had a noble antient
seat, now possess'd with a vast estate by his grandson, Sir
Robert Fagg; but I mention the antient gentleman on this
occasion, that being entertained at his house, in the year 1697,
he show'd me in his park four bullocks of his own breeding, and
of his own feeding, of so prodigious a size, and so excessively
overgrown by fat, that I never saw any thing like them; and
the bullock which Sir Edward Blacket, in Yorkshire, near
Rippon, fed, and caused to be shew'd about for a sight at
Newcastle upon Tyne, was not any way equal to the least of
them, nor had it so much flesh on it by near twenty stone a
quarter.

While I continu'd at Sir John's, some London butchers came
down to see them, and in my hearing offer'd Sir John six and
twenty pound a head for them, but he refused it; and when
I mov'd him afterward to take the money, he said No, he was
resolv'd to have them to Smithfield himself, that he might say
he had the four biggest bullocks in England at market.

He continued positive, and did go up to Smithfield-Market
with them; but whether it was that they sunk a little in the
driving, or that the butchers play'd a little upon him, I cannot
tell; but he was obliged to sell them for twenty five pound a
head when he came there: I knew one of the butchers that
bought them, and on a particular occasion enquir'd of him what
they weigh'd when kilTd, and he assur'd me that they weigh'd
eighty stone a quarter, when kill'd and cut-out; which is so
incredible, that if I had not been well assur'd of the truth of it,
I should not have ventur'd thus to have recorded it: But by this
may be judg'd something of the largeness of the cattle in the
Wild of Kent and Sussex, for it is all the same, of which I men-
tion'd something before, and for this reason I tell the story.

From hence we come to Arundel, a decayed town also; but
standing near the mouth of a good river, calTd Arun, which
signifies, says Mr, Cambden, the swift, tho* the river it self is
not such a rapid current as merits that name; at least it did
not seem to be so to me.

The principal advantage to the country from this river, is
the shipping of great quantities of large timber here; which is

I 3 2 DEFOE'S TOUR

carry'd up the Thames to Woolwich and Deptford, and up the
Medway to Chatham; as also westward to Portsmouth, and even
to Plymouth, to the new dock there, that is to say, it goes to all
the king's yards, where the business of the navy is carry'd on:
The timber shipped off here is esteem'd the best, as it is also
the largest that is brought by sea from any part of England; also
great quantities of knee timber is had here, which is valuable
in its kind above the strait timber, being not only necessary,
but scarce, I mean that which is very large.

This river, and the old decay 'd, once famous castle at Arundel,
which are still belonging to the family of Howards, Earls of
Arundel, a branch of the Norfolk family, is all that is remarkable
here; except it be that in this river are catch'd the best mullets,
and the largest in England, a fish very good in it self, and much
valued by the gentry round, and often sent up to London.

From hence to the city of Chichester are twelve miles, and
the most pleasant beautiful country in England, whether we go
by the hill, that is the Downs, or by the plain, (viz.) the enclosed
country. To the north of Arundel, and at the bottom of the
hills, and consequently in the Wild, is the town of Petworth,
a large handsome country market-town, and very populous,
and as it stands upon an ascent, and is dry and healthy, it is full
of gentlemens families, and good well built houses both hi the
town and neighbourhood; but the beauty of Petworth, is the
antient seat of the old family of Peircy, Earls of Northumber-
land, now extinct; whose daughter, the sole heiress of all his
vast estates, marry'd the present Duke of Somerset; of the noble
and antient family of Seymour, and among other noble seats
brought his grace this of Petworth.

The duke pulTd down the antient house, and on the same
spot has built from the ground, one of the finest piles of build-
ing, and the best model'd houses then in Britain: It has had the
misfortune to be once almost demolish'd by fire, but the damage
is fully repair J d; but another disaster to the family can never
be repaired, which has happen'd to it, even while these sheets
were writing; namely, the death of the dutchess, who dy'd in
November 1722, and lies buried in the burying place of the
family of Seymor, Dukes of Somerset, in the cathedral church
of Salisbury.

Her Grace was happy in a numerous issue, as well as in a
noble estate; and besides two sons and one daughter, which

lye bury'd with her, has left one son and daughters still

living. I shall have occasion to mention the Northumberland

SUSSEX 133

estates again, when I come to speak of the other fine seats, which
the duke enjoys in right of his late dutchess, and the many old
castles which were formerly part of that Northumberland estate.

The duke's house at Petworth, is certainly a compleat building
in it self, and the apartments are very noble, well contriv'd, and
richly furnish' d; but it cannot be said, that the situation of the
house is equally design'd, or with equal judgment as the rest;
the avenues to the front want space, the house stands as it were
with its elbow to the town, its front has no visto answerable,
and the west front look'd not to the parks or fine gardens, but
to the old stables.

To rectify this, when it was too late to order it any other way,
the duke was obUg'd to pull down those noble buildings; I mean
the mews, or stables, the finest of their kind in all the south of
England, and equal to some noblemens whole houses, and yet
even the demolishing the pile has done no more than open'd a
prospect over the country, whereas had the house been set on
the rising ground, on the side of the park, over against the
north wing of the house, and a little more to the westward, the
front had been south to the town, the back front to the parks,
which were capable of fountains, canals, vistos, and all the
most exquisite pieces of art, that sets out the finest gardens,
whereas all now lyes on one angle, or opposite to one wing of
the house. But with all these disadvantages, the house it self
is a noble pile of building, and by far the finest in all this part
of Britain.

From Petworth west, the country is a little less woody than
the Wild, and there begin to show their heads above the trees,
a great many fine seats of the nobility and gentlemen of the
country, as the Duke of Richmond's seat at Goodwood, near
Chichester. (This family also is in tears, at the writing these
sheets, for the death of her grace the dutchess, who dyed the
beginning of the month of December, and is bury*d in West-
minster Abbey; and here the year closing, I think 'tis very
remarkable, that this year 1722, no less than five dukes and two
dutchesses are dead (viz.) the Dukes of Bucks, Bolton, Rutland,
Manchester, and Marlborough, and the Dutchesses of Somerset
and Richmond; besides earls (viz.) the Earl of Sunderland, oi
Stamford, Exeter, and others; and since the above was written,
and sent to the press, the Duke of Richmond himself is also
dead.) The seats of the late Earl of Tankerville, and the Earl
of Scarborough, the antient house of the Lord Montacute at
Midhurst, an antient family of the sirname of Brown, the eldest

134 DEFOE'S TOUR

branch of the house: These and a great many more lying so
near together, make the country hereabout much more sociable
and pleasant than the rest of the woody country, call'd The
Wild, of which I have made mention so often; and yet I cannot
say much for the city of Chichester, in which, if six or seven
good families were removed, there would not be much conversa-
tion, except what is to be found among the canons, and
dignitaries of the cathedral.

The cathedral here is not the finest in England, but is far
from being the most ordinary: The spire is a piece of excellent

workmanship, but it received such a shock about years

ago, that it was next to miraculous, that the whole steeple did
not fall down; which in short, if it had, would almost have
demolished the whole church.

It was a fire-ball, if we take it from the inhabitants, or, to
speak in the language of nature, the lightning broke upon the
steeple, and such was the irresistible force of it, that it drove
several great stones out of the steeple, and carry* d them clear
off, not from the roof of the church only, but of the adjacent
houses also, and they were found at a prodigious distance from
the steeple, so that they must have been shot out of the places
where they stood in the steeple, as if they had been shot out of
a cannon, or blown out of a mine: One of these stones of at
least a ton weight, by estimation, was blown over the south
side, or row of houses in the West-Street, and fell on the ground
in the street at a gentleman's door, on the other side of the way;
and another of them almost as big was blown over both sides of
the said West-Street, into the same gentleman's garden, at
whose door the other stone lay, and no hurt was done by either
of them; whereas if either of those stones had fallen upon the
strongest built house in the street, it would have dash'd it all to
pieces, even to the foundation: This account of the two stones,
I relate from a person of undoubted credit, who was an eye-
witness, and saw them, but had not the curiosity to measure
them, which he was very sorry for. The breach it made in the
spire, tho j within about forty five foot of the top, was so large,
that as the workmen said to me, a coach and six horses might
have driven through it, and yet the steeple stood fast, and is now
very substantially repair'd; withal, showing that it was before,
an admirable sound and well finished piece of workmanship.

They have a story in this city, that when ever a bishop of
that diocess is to dye, a heron comes and sits upon the pinnacle
of the spire of the cathedral: This accordingly happened, about

SUSSEX 135

when Dr. Williams was bishop: A butcher standing

at his shop-door, in the South-Street, saw it, and ran in for his
gun, and being a good marks-man shot the heron, and kilTd it,
at which his mother was very angry with him, and said he had
kilTd the bishop, and the next day news came to the town that
Dr. Williams, the last bishop was dead; this is affirm'd by
many people inhabitants of the place.

This city is not a place of much trade, nor is it very populous ;
but they are lately fallen into a very particular way of managing
the corn trade here, which it is said turns very well to account;
the country round it is very fruitful, and particularly in good
wheat, and the farmers generally speaking, carr/d all their
wheat to Farnham, to market, which is very near forty miles
by land-carriage, and from some parts of the country more
than forty miles.

But some money'd men of Chichester, Emsworth, and other
places adjacent, have join'd their stocks together, built large
granaries near the Crook, where the vessels come up, and here
they buy and lay up all the corn which the country on that side
can spare; and having good mills in the neighbourhood, they
grind and dress the corn, and send it to London in the meal
about by Long Sea, as they call it; nor now the war is over do they
make the voyage so tedious as to do the meal any hurt, as at first
in the time of war was sometimes the case for want of convoys.

It is true, this is a great lessening to Farnham Market, but that
is of no consideration in the case; for, if the market at London
is supply'd, the coming by sea from Chichester is every jot as
much a publick good, as the encouraging of Farnham Market,
which is of it self the greatest corn-market in England, London
excepted. Notwithstanding all the decrease from this side of
the country, this carrying of meal by sea met with so just an
encouragement from hence, that it is now practised from several
other places on this coast, even as far as Shampton.

From Chichester the road lying still west, passes in view of
the Earl of Scarborough's fine seat at Stansted, a house seeming
to be a retreat, being surrounded with thick woods, thro* which
there are the most pleasant agreeable visto's cut, that are to be
seen any where in England, particularly, because through the
west opening, which is from tiie front of the house, they sit in
the dining-room of the house, and see the town and harbour
of Portsmouth, the ships at Spithead, and also at St. Helens ;
which when the royal navy happens to be there, as often happened
during the late war, is a most glorious sight.

136 DEFOE'S TOUR

This house was fatal to Dr. Williams, mentioned above,
Bishop of Chichester, who having been here to make a visit to
the late Earl of Scarborough, was thrown out of his coach, or
rather threw himself out, being frighted by the unruliness of his
horses, and broke his leg in the fall, which, his lordship being
in years, was mortal to ham: He dy'd in a few days after.

From hence we descend gradually to Portsmouth, the largest
fortification, beyond comparison, that we have in England, but
it was not with any consideration, that the author before re-
cited could say, it was the only regular fortification in England;
especially the same writer owning afterwards that Shireness,
Languardfort, and Tilbury, were all regular fortifications, as
they really are.

The situation of this place is such, that it is chosen, as may
well be said, for the best security to the navy above all the
places in Britain; the entrance into the harbour is safe, but
very narrow, guarded on both sides by terrible platforms of
cannon, particularly on the Point; which is a suburb of Ports-
mouth properly so call'd, where there is a brick platform built
with two tire of guns, one over another, and which can fire so
in cover, that the gunners cannot be beaten from their guns, or
their guns easily dismounted; the other is from the point of
land on the side of Gosport, which they call Gilkicker, where
also they have two batteries.

Before any ships attempt to enter this port by sea, they must
also pass the cannon of lie main platform of the garrison, and
also another at South-Sea-Castle; so that it is next to impossible
that any ships could match the force of all those cannon, and
be able to force their way into the harbour; in which I speak the
judgment of men well acquainted with such matters, as well as
my own opinion, and of men whose opinion leads them to think
the best of the force of naval batteries too; and who have
talk'd of making no difficulty to force their way through the
Thames, in the teeth of the line of guns at Tilbury; I say, they
have talk'd of it, but it was but talk, as any one of judgment
would imagin, that knew the works at Tilbury, of which I have
spoken in its place: The reasons, however, which they give for
the difference, have some force in them, as they relate to Ports-
mouth, tho* not as they relate to Tilbury; (viz.) That the mouth
or entrance into Portsmouth is narrow, and may be lock'd up
with booms, which before the ships could break, and while they
were lying at them to break them away, they would be torn in
pieces by the battery at the Point: (next) That the guns on the

HAMPSHIRE 137

said battery at the Point at Portsmouth, are defended as above,
with ambruziers, and the gunners stand cover'd, so that they
cannot so soon be beaten from their guns, or their guns so soon
dismounted by the warm quarter of a three deck ship, as at
Tilbury, where all the gunners and guns too must stand open,
both to small and great shot: Besides at Tilbury, while some of
the ships lay battering the fort, others would pass behind them,
close under the town, and if one or more received damage from
the fort, the rest would pass in the cloud of smoke, and perhaps
might compass their design, as is the case in all places, where the
entrance is broad; whereas at Portsmouth, they would be
batter'd within little more than pistol shot, and from both
sides of the way; whereas at Tilbury there are very few guns
on the Gravesend side of the river.

But to avoid comparing of strengths, or saying what may be
done in one place, and not done in another; 'tis evident, in the
opinion of aU that I have met with, that the greatest fleet of
ships that ever were in the hands of one nation at a time, would
not pretend, if they had not an army also on shoar, to attack
the whole work, to force their entrance into the harbour at
Portsmouth.

As to the strength of the town by land, the works are very
large and numerous, and besides the battery at the Point afore-
said, there is a large hornwork on the south-side, running out
towards South-Sea Castle; there is also a good counterscarp, and
double mote, with ravelins in the ditch, and double pallisadoes,
and advanced works to cover the place from any approach,
where it may be practicable: The strength of the town is also
considerably augmented on the land-side, by the fortifications
raised in King William's time about the docks and yards,
which are now perfected, and those parts made a particular
strength by themselves; and tho j they are indeed in some sense
independent one of another, yet they cover and strengthen one
another, so as that they cannot be separately attacked on that
side, while they are both in the same hands.

These docks and yards are now like a town by themselves,
and are a kind of marine corporation, or a government of their
own kind within themselves; there being particular large rows
of dwellings, built at the publick charge, within the new works,
for all the principal officers of the place; especially the com-
missioner, the agent of the victualling, and such as these; the
tradesmen likewise have houses here, and many of the labourers
are allow'd to live in the bounds as they can get lodging.

138 DEFOE'S TOUR

The town of Portsmouth, besides its being a fortification, is
a well inhabited, thriving, prosperous corporation; and hath
been greatly enrich'd of late by the fleet's having so often and
so long lain there, as well as large fleets of merchant-men, as
the whole navy during the late war; besides the constant fitting
out of men here, and the often paying them at Portsmouth, has
made a great confluence of people thither on their private
business, with other things, which the attendance of those fleets
hath required: These things have not only been a great advan-
tage to the town, but has really made the whole place rich, and
the inhabitants of Portsmouth are quite another sort of people
than they were a few years before the Revolution; this is what
Mr. Cambden takes notice of, even so long ago as the reign of
Queen Elizabeth; that "Portsmouth was populous in time of
war, but not so in time of peace": but now the business of the
navy is so much encreased, and so much of it always done here,
that it may be said, there is as much to do at Portsmouth now
in time of peace, as there was then in time of war, and more too.

There is also this note to be put upon the two great arsenals
of England, Portsmouth, and Chatham; Namely, That they
thrive by a war, as the war respects their situation (viz.) That
when a war with France happens, or with Spain, then Ports-
mouth grows rich, and when a war with Holland, or any of the
Powers of the north, then Chatham, and Woolwich, and Dept-
ford are in request; but of this I shall speak again, when I come
to speak of the like antithesis between Plymouth and the
Humber, or Portsmouth and the Firth of Edinburgh.

The government of the place is by a mayor and aldermen,
&c. as in other corporations, and the civil government is no
more interrupted by the military, than if there was no garrison
there, such is the good conduct of the governors, and such it
has always been, since our soveraigns have ceas'd to encourage
the soldiery to insult the civil magistrates: And we have very
seldom had any complaint on either side, either of want of
discipline among the soldiers, or want of prudence in the
magistrates: The inhabitants indeed necessarily submit to such
things as are the consequence of a garrison town, such as
being examin'd at the gates, such as being obliged to keep
garrison hours, and not be let out, or let in after nine a clock
at night, and the like; but these are things no people will count
a burthen, where they get their bread by the very situation of
the place, as is the case here.

Since the encrease of business at this place, by the long con-

HAMPSHIRE 139

tinuance of the war, the confluence of people has been so great,
and the town not admitting any enlargement for buildings, that
a kind of a suburb, or rather a new town has been built on the
healthy ground adjoining to the town, which is so well built,
and seems to encrease so fast, that in time it threatens to outdo
for numbers of inhabitants, and beauty of buildings, even the
town it self; and particularly by being unconfin'd by the laws
of the garrison, as above, and unencumbered with the corpora-
tion burthens, freedoms, town duties, services, and the like.

From Portsmouth west, the country lyes low and flat, and is
full of creeks and inlets of the sea and rivers, all the way to
Southampton, so that we ferry over three times in about
eighteen miles; besides going over one bridge, namely, at
Tichfield: The first of these ferries is that at Portsmouth it self,
(viz.) cross the mouth of the harbour, from the Point above-
mention'd to Gosport; from thence we ride to Tichfield, as
above, where we pass the river Alre, which rises in the same
county at Abresford, or near it, which is not above twenty two
miles off; and yet it is a large river here, and makes a good
road below, calPd Tichfield Bay: Thence at about four miles
we pass another river at Busselton, narrow in breadth, but
exceeding deep, and eminent for its being able to carry the
biggest ships: Here is a building yard for ships of war, and in
King William's time, two eighty gun ships were launched here.
It seems the safety of the creek, and the plenty of timber in
the country behind it, is the reason of building so much in
this place.

From hence when we come opposite to Southampton, we pass
another creek, being the mouth of the river Itchen which
comes down from Winchester, and is both very broad and deep,
and the ferry men having a very sorry boat, we found it
dangerous enough passing it: On the other bank stands the
antient town of Southampton, and on the other side of South-
ampton comes down another large river, entring Southampton
Water by Red-Bridge; so that the town of Southampton stands
upon a point running out into the sea, between two very fine
rivers, both navigable, up some length into the country, and
particularly useful for the bringing down timber out of one of
the best wooded counties in Britain; for the river on the west
side of the town in particular comes by the edge of the great
forest, call'd New-Forest; here we saw a prodigious quantity
of timber, of an uncommon size, vastly large, lying on the
shoar of the river, for above two miles in length, which they

140 DEFOE'S TOUR

told us was brought thither from the forest, and left there to
be fetch'd by the builders at Portsmouth-Dock, as they had
occasion for it.

In riding over the south part of Hampshire, I made this
observation about that growth of timber, which I mention in
supplement to what I said before concerning our timber being
wasted and decay'd in England, (viz.) that notwithstanding the
very great consumption of timber in King William's reign,
by building or rebuilding almost the whole navy; and not-
withstanding so many of the king's ships were built hereabouts,
besides abundance of large merchant ships, which were about
that time built at Southampton, at Redbridge, and at Bursleton,
&c. yet I saw the gentlemens estates, within six, eight, or
ten miles of Southampton, so over-grown with wood, and their
woods so full of large full grown timber, that it seem'd as if
they wanted sale for it, and that it was of little worth to them.
In one estate at Hursely in particular near Winchester, the
estate since bought by Mr. Cardonell, late manager for the
Duke of Marlborough, and formerly belonging to Mr. Cromwell,
grandson to Oliver Cromwell, the whole estate not above SooZ.
per arm. in rent, they might have cut twenty thousand pounds
worth of timber down, and yet have left the woods in a thriving
condition; in another estate between that and Petersfield, of
about loooZ. per ann. they told me they could fell a thousand
pounds a year in good large timber fit for building, for twenty
years together, and do the woods no harm: Colonel Norton
also, a known gentleman, whose seat at Southwick is within
six miles of Portsmouth, and within three miles of the water
carriage; this gentleman they told me had an immense quantity
of timber, some growing within sight of the very docks in
Portsmouth: Farther west it is the like, and as I rode through
New-Forest, I cou'd see the antient oaks of many hundred
years standing, perishing with their withered tops advanc'd up
in the air, and grown white with age, and that could never
yet get the favour to be cut down, and made serviceable to
their country.

These in my opinion are no signs of the decay of our woods,
or of the danger of our wanting timber in England; on the
contrary, I take leave to mention it again, that if we were
employed in England, by the rest of the world, to build a
thousand sail of three deck ships, from 80 to 100 guns, it might
be done to our infinite advantage, and without putting us in
any danger of exhausting the nation of timber.

HAMPSHIRE 141

I shall give other hints of the like, when I come to speak of
Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and the counties
which we call inland, where the timber is really of small value,
for want of water carriage to carry it away; likewise again in
the counties northward, bordering upon the Humber, and upon
all the northern rivers, not to say a word of Ireland; which is
still a store-house of timber, more inexhaustible if possible than
England.

Southampton is a truly antient town, for 'tis in a manner
dying with age; the decay of the trade is the real decay of the
town; and all the business of moment that is transacted there,
is the trade between us and the islands of Jersey and Guernsey,
with a little of the wine trade, and much smuggling: The
building of ships also is much stop'd of late; however, the town
is large, has many people in it, a noble fair High-Street, a spacious
key; and if its trade should revive, is able to entertain great
numbers of people: There is a French church, and no inconsider-
able congregation, which was a help to the town, and there are still
some merchants who trade to Newfoundland, and to the Streights
with fish; but for all other trade, it may be said of Southampton
as of other towns, London has eaten it up. The situation of the
town between two rivers was to its advantage formerly in point
of strength, and the town was walTd with a very strong wall,
strengthened with a rampart, and a double ditch; but I don ot
hear that they ever were put to make much use of them.

Whatever the fable of Bevis of Southampton, and the gyants
in the woods thereabouts may be deriv'd from, I found the
people mighty willing to have those things pass for true; and at
the north gate of the town, the only entrance from the land
side, they have the figures of two eminent champions, who
might pass for gyants if they were alive now, but they can tell
us very little of then: history, but what is all fabulous like the
rest, so I say no more of them.

I was now at the extent of my intended journey west, and
thought of looking no farther this way for the present, so I came
away north east, leaving Winchester a little on the left, and
came into the Portsmouth road at Petersfield, a town eminent
for little, but its being full of good inns, and standing in the
middle of a country, still over-grown with a prodigious quantity
of oak-timber. From hence we came to Alton, and in the road
thither, began a little to taste the pleasure of the Western Downs,
which reach from Winchester almost to Alton.

The Duke of Bolton has two very noble seats in this country,

142 DEFOE'S TOUR

one between Alton and Alresford; and one at Basing, of which
hereafter. Alton is a small market-town, of no note, neither
is there any considerable manufacture in all this part of Eng-
land; except a little drugget and shalloon making, which begins
hereabouts, otherwise the whole counties of Kent, Sussex,
Surrey, and Hampshire, are not employ 'd in any considerable
woollen manufacture; what there is, I have spoken of about
Cranbrook in Kent, Guilford, and Farnham in Surrey, and a
little in the north part of Barkshire, all which put together, is
not equal to one ordinary manufacturing village in Essex or
Norfolk.

From Alton we came to Farnham, of which I can only say,
that it is a large populous market-town, the farthest that way in
the county of Surrey, and without exception the greatest corn-
market in England, London excepted; that is to say, particularly
for wheat, of which so vast a quantity is brought every market-
day to this market, that a gentleman told me, he once counted
on a market-day eleven hundred teams of horse, all drawing
waggons, or carts, loaden with wheat at this market; every
team of which is supposed to bring what they call a load, that
is to say, forty bushel of wheat to market; which is in the
whole, four and forty thousand bushel; but I do not take upon
me to affirm this relation, or to say whether it be a probable
opinion or not; I know some have thought the quantity has
been much more; but this also was, I suppose, before the
people of Chichester and Emsworth on one side, and South-
ampton, Tichfield, and Redbridge on the other, took to the
trade of sending their wheat in meal to London by sea, as is
mentioned above.

At this town is a castle eminent for this, that it was built
by a Bishop of Winchester; and tho' its antiquity is evident, as
far back as King Stephen; yet it remains to the Bishops of
Winchester to this day. Here the said Bishops of Winchester
usually keep their ordinary residence, and tho' the county of
Surrey, be generally speaking within the diocess, they may be
truly said to reside in the middle of their ecclesiastical dominion.
The Farnham people it seems, or some of the country folks,
notwithstanding the liberality and bounty of the several bishops,
who, if some people may be believ'd, have been very good
benefactors to the town; I say, notwithstanding all this, have
of late been very unkind to the bishop, in pulling down the
pale of his park, and plundering it of the deer, killing, wounding,
and disabling, even those they cou'd not carry away.

SURREY 43

From Farnham, that I might take in the whole county of
Surrey, I took the coach-road, over Bagshot-Heath, and that
great forest, as 'tis call'd, of Windsor: Those that despise
Scotland, and the north part of England, for being full of wast
and barren land, may take a view of this part of Surrey, and
look upon it as a foil to the beauty of the rest of England; or
a mark of the just resentment shew'd by Heaven upon the
Englishmen's pride; I mean the pride they shew in boasting of
their country, its fruitfulness, pleasantness, richness, the fertility
of the soil, &c. whereas here is a vast tract of land, some of it
Within seventeen or eighteen miles of the capital city; which
is riot only poor, but even quite steril, given up to barrenness,
horrid and frightful to look on, not only good for little, but good
for nothing; much of it is a sandy desert, and one may fre-
quently be put in mind here of Arabia Deserta, where the
winds raise the sands, so as to overwhelm whole caravans of
travellers, cattle and people together; for in passing this heath,
in a windy day, I was so far in danger of smothering with the
clouds of sand, which were raised by the storm, that I cou'd
neither keep it out of my mouth, nose or eyes; and when the
wind was over, the sand appeared spread over the adjacent
fields of the forest some miles distant, so as that it ruins the
very soil. This sand indeed is check'd by the heath, or heather,
which grows in it, and which is the common product of barren
land, even in the very Highlands of Scotland; but the ground
is otherwise so poor and barren, that the product of it feeds no
creatures, but some very small sheep, who feed chiefly on the
said heather, and but very few of these, nor are there any
villages, worth mentioning, and but few houses, or people for
many miles far and wide; this desart lyes extended so much,
that some say, there is not less than a hundred thousand
acres of this barren land that lyes all together, reaching
out every way in the three counties of Surrey, Hampshire
and Berkshire; besides a great quantity of land, almost as
bad as that between Godalming and Petersfield, on the road
to Portsmouth, including some hills, calTd the Hind Head
and others.

Thro' this desart, for I can call it no less, we come into the
great western road, leading from London to Salisbury, Exeter,
&c. and pass the Thames at Stanes; and here I could not but
call to mind, upon viewing the beautiful prospect of the river,
and of the meadows, on the banks of the river, on the left
hand of the road, I say, I cou'd not but call to mind those two

* F 820

144 DEFOE'S TOUR

excellent lines of Sir John Denham, in his poem, call'd Cooper's

Hill, viz.

Tho* deep, yet clear, tho' gentle, yet not dull,
Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full.

Here I remembered that I had yet left the inland towns of
the two counties of Kent and Sussex, and almost all the county
of Surrey out of my account; and that having as it were taken
a circuit round the coast only, I had a great many places worth
viewing to give an account of; I therefore left Windsor, which
was within my view, on one side of the river, and Hampton
Court on the other, as being the subject of another letter; and
resolv'd to finish my present view, in the order I had begun it;
That is to say, to give an account of the whole country as
I come on; that I may make no incongruous transitions from
one remote part of England to another, at least as few as may be.

From Stanes therefore I turn'd S. and S.E. to Chertsey,
another market-town, and where there is a bridge over the
Thames: This town was made famous, by being the burial
place of Henry VI. till his bones were after removed to Windsor
by Henry VII. also by being the retreat of the incomparable
Cowley, where he liv'd withdrawn from the hurries of the
Court and town, and where he dy'd so much a recluse, as to
be almost wholly taken up in country business, farming and
husbandry, for his diversion, not for bread, according to the
publick flight of his own fancy.

From this town wholly employed, either in malting, or in
barges to carry it down the river to London; I went away
south to Woking, a private country market-town, so out of
all road, or thorough-fare, as we call it, that 'tis very little heard
of in England; it claims however some honour, from its being
once the residence of a royal branch of the family of Plantagenet,
the old Countess of Richmond, mother to King Henry VII, who
made her last retreat here, where the king her son built, or
rather TrepaurM, an old royal house, on purpose for her resi-
dence, and where she ended her days in much honour and
peace; the former part of her life having been sufficiently
exposed to the storms and dangers of the times; especially
under the tyranny and turbulent reign of the two precedent
monarchs.

From hence we came to Guilford, a well known and con-
siderable market-town: It has the name of being the county
town, tho' it cannot properly be call'd so; neither the county
gaol being here, or the assizes, any more than in common with

SURREY 145

other towns: But the election indeed for Parliament men for
the county is always held here. The river which according to
Mr. Camden is calPd the Wey, and which falls into the Thames
at Oatlands, is made navigable to this town, which adds greatly
to its trade; and by this navigation a very great quantity of
timber is brought down to London, not from the neighbourhood
of this town only, but even from the woody parts of Sussex and
Hampshire above thirty miles from it, the country carriages
bringing it hither in the summer by land: This navigation is
also a mighty support to the great corn-market at Farnham,
which I have mentioned so often: For as the meal-men and
other dealers buy the corn at that market, much of it is brought
to the mills on this river; which is not above seven miles distant,
and being first ground and dress'd, is then sent down in the
meal by barges to London; the expence of which is very small,
as is practised on the other side of the Thames, for above fifty
miles distance from London.

Here, as I observed in its place, is a small remainder of an old
manufacture, that is to say, of the clothing trade, and it extends
it self to Godalming, Haselmeer, and the vale country, on the
side of the Holmwood; a place of which I shall speak on another
occasion, quite to Darking: These cloths of a middling price,
have formerly been in great repute, and then again were almost
quite decay' d, but by the application and skill of the clothiers,
maintained the credit of their make, and are encouraged, and
indeed revived in reputation of late years, when the clothiers
of Cranbrook and Tenterden in Kent, whose goods are of the
same kind, are almost sunk to nothing, as I have already
observed.

This clothing trade, however small, is very assistant to the
poor of this part of the country, where the lands, as I have
noted, are but indifferent; except just above the great towns,
and where abundance of the inhabitants are what we call
cottagers, and live chiefly by the benefit of the large commons
and heath ground, of which the quantity is so very great.

From thus town of Guilford, the road to Farnham is very
remarkable, for it runs along west from Guilford, upon the ridge
of a high chalky hill, so narrow that the breadth of the road
takes up the breadth of the hill, and the declivity begins on
either hand, at the very hedge that bounds the highway, and
is very steep, as well as very high; from this hill is a prospect
either way, so far that 'tis surprising; and one sees to the north,
or N.W. over the great black desart, calPd Bagshot-Heath,

146 DEFOE'S TOUR

mentioned above, one way, and the other way south east into
Sussex, almost to the South Downs, and west to an unbounded
length, the horizon only restraining the eyes: This hill being
all chalk, a traveller feels the effect of it in a hot summer's
day, being scorch' d by the reflection of the sun from the chalk,
so as to make the heat almost insupportable; and this I speak by
my own experience: This hill reaches from Guilford town's
end to within a mile and half of Farnham.

The hill, or the going up to it from Guilford rather, is calTd
St. Katharine's-Hill, and at the top of the ascent from the town
stands the gallows, which is so placed, respecting the town, that
the towns people from the High-Street may sit at their shop
doors, and see the criminals executed.

The great road from London to Chichester, and from London
to Portsmouth, lying thro' this town; it is consequently a town
very well furnish'd with inns for accommodation of travellers,
as is Godalming, also the next town within three miles of it.

From Guilford there lies a cross-road, as it may be call'd, to
London, not frequented by coaches or carriers, or the ordinary
passengers to London; tho' 'tis by some reckon'd the nearest
way, and is without question much the pleasanter road, if it is
not the pleasantest in this part of England: (viz.) From this
town to Letherhead, ten miles from Letherhead to London, over
Banstead Downs fifteen miles, or if you please by Epsome
seventeen miles; which, tho' it is call'd the farthest way, makes
amends abundantly by the goodness of the way, and the
advantage and pleasantness of the road.

The ten miles from Guilford to Leatherhead make one con-
tinued line of gentlemens houses, lying all, or most of them, on
the west side of the road, and their parks, or gardens almost
touching one another: Here are pleasantly seated several very
considerable persons, as the posterity of Sir Tho. Bludworth,
once Lord Mayor of London, a person famous for the implacable
passion he put the people of London in, by one rash expression,
at the time of the Great Fire : (viz.) " That it was nothing, and they
might piss it out"; which was only spoken at the beginning of the
fire, when neither Sir Thomas or the citizens themselves cou'd
foresee the length it would go; and without any design to lessen
their endeavours to quench it: But this they never forgot, or
forgave to him, or his family after him; but fix'd the expression
on him, as a mark of indelible reproach, even to this day:
Among the other fine seats in this row, is that of Arthur Moor,
Esq; at Fetcham, where no cost has been spar'd to make a most

SURREY 147

beautiful and delicious situation be beholden to art, and which
is set out at an immense charge: Near to Guilford, at the village
of Clendon, at the west end of this line of fine seats, is the
antient mansion of the Onslow's: The father of the present
lord, was Sir Richard Onslow, Baronet; several years one of
the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury or Admiralty; and
created Baron Onslow by King GEORGE.

The seat is old, and the estate is old too (but the latter is
much the better for its age) for it has been many years in the
family, as appears in Mr. Camden, and has gone on, encreasing
from hand to hand. The late Lord Onslow improv'd and beautify'd
both the house and the estate too very much. The house has
several times been honoured with the presence of both King
William and King George; the former erected an annual race
for a royal plate of 100 guineas, call'd the King's Gold Plate,
to be run for every year, and the latter has been so good, as
twice at least to honour the diversion with his presence.

At the like distance north from Guilford, and on the banks of
the Wey, is a fine seat, every way as fit for the possession of
a peer as is Clendon Park; and belonging to a branch of the same
family, (viz.) to Denzil Onslow, Esq; uncle to the present Lord
Onslow, younger brother to his father the first lord: This seat
is calTd Pyrford, and is exceeding pleasant, especially for the
most beautiful intermixture of wood, and water in the park,
and gardens, and grounds adjoining; by which the possessor,
whose genius lay wonderfully in improving lands, and making
things more pleasant, brought Pyrford to such a perfection,
as to be inferior to very few, if any, of the finest houses in
Surrey; particularly in one thing, which is not found in all
that part of England; namely, a duckoy, which adjoins to his
park, and which makes the rest inimitably agreeable.

At the north east end of this range of fine seats, is Letherhead,
a little thorough-fare town, with a stone-bridge over the river
Mole; this river is called the Mole, from its remarkable sinking
into the earth, at the foot of Box-Hill, near a village calTd
Mickleham, and working its way under ground like a mole,
rising again at or near this town of Leatherhead, where its
wandering streams are united again, and form a pretty large
river, as they were before, running together under Leatherhead
Bridge, and from thence to Cobham, and so it pursues its course
to the Thames, which it joins at Molesy, which takes its name
to be sure from the name of the river Mole.

And here I cannot but take notice of an unaccountable error,

148 DEFOE'S TOUR

which all the writers I have met with fall unwarily into, on
account of this little river hiding itself in the earth, and finding
its way under ground, from the foot of Beechworth, more
properly Betsworth-Castle, near Box-Hill, and then rising again
at Letherhead, as above; as if the water had at once ingulph'd
itself in a chasm of the earth, or sunk in a whirlpit, as is said
of the Caspian-Sea, which they say rises again in the Persian
Gulph with the same violence that it ingulphs it self: Tis strange
this error should prevail in this manner, and with men of
learning too, and in a case so easily discovered and so near. But
thus it is, nor is it at all remote from the true design of this work,
to undeceive the world in the false or mistaken accounts, which
other men have given of things, especially when those mistakes
are so demonstrably gross; and when the subject is significant
too, as in this part now in hand: Mr. Camden expresses it thus:
"The Mole," says he, "coming to White-Hill," (he should have
said Box-Hill) "hides it self, or is rather swallow'd up at the
foot of it; and for that reason the place is calTd Swallow, but
after two miles it bubbles up, and rises again"; then he adds,
(alluding to the river Guadiana in Castile) "that the inhabitants
of this tract no less than the Spaniards may boast of having a
bridge that feeds several flocks of sheep." Thus far Mr. Camden.
The right reverend and learned editor of the Additions to
Mr. Camden, makes it yet worse, speaking of Beechworth
Castle, which is a mile before we come to Barking; and 'tis at
the foot of this castle here, says his lordship, that the river
Mole being nigh to the precipice of Box-Hill is swallow'd up.
Now 'tis something strange for me to take upon me, after
two such authorities, to say, that neither of these is right. The
accounts are so positive, that many curious people have rid
thither to see this place, call'd Swallow, and to see this Beech-
worth Castle, at the foot of which the river is swallow'd up, not
doubting but they should see some wonderful gulph, in which
a whole river should be at once as it were bury'd alive; for
Mr. Camden says, " Swallow is the place " : The bishop says, " near
Beechworth-Castle the river is swallowed up"; nay, and to make
the wonder appear more conformable to the relation, the map
of the county of Surrey, plac'd in Mr. Camden, makes a large
blank between the river as swallowed up, a little off of Darking,
and its rising again as at Leatherhead, breaking the river off
abruptly, as if pouring its waters all at once into a great gulph,
like one of the common-shores of the streets of London, and
bringing it out again at once, just as the water of the brook

SURREY 149

running into Fleet-Ditch, comes out from under Holbourn-
Bridge.

Now after all these plausible stories, the matter of fact is
this, and no more; and even of this, the thing is wonderful
enough too: But I say, it is thus, and no more, (viz.)

The river Mole passes by Beechworth Castle in a full stream;
and for near a mile farther on the west of the castle, it takes
into its stream Darking-Brook, as they call it, and has upon it
a large corn-mill, call'd Darking-Mill; below this it runs dose
at the foot of Box-Hill, near that part of the hill, which is call'd
the Stomacher; then, as if obstructed by the hill, it turns a little
south, and runs cross the road which leads from Barking to
Leatherhead, where it is apparently rapid and strong; and then
fetches a circuit round a park, formerly belonging to Sir Richard
Studdolph, and which is part of it, within sight of Leatherhead,
and so keeps a continued chanel to the very town of Leather-
head; so that there is no such thing as a natural bridge, or a
river lost, no, not at all; and in the winter, in time of floods
the stream will be very large, and rapid all the way above
ground, which I affirm of my own knowledge, having seen it
so, on many occasions.

But the true state of the case is this, the current of _ the river
being much obstructed by the interposition of those hills, call'd
Box-Hill, which tho' descending in a kind of vale, as if parted
to admit the river to pass, and making that descent so low as
to have the appearance of a level, near a village call'd Mickle-
ham; I say, these hills yet interrupting the free course of the
river, it forces the waters as it were to find their way thro' as
well as they can; and in order to this, beginning, I say, where
the river comes close to the foot of the precipice of Box-Hill,
call'd the Stomacher, the waters sink insensibly away, and in
some places are to be seen (and I have seen them) little chanels
which go out on the sides of the river, where the water in a stream
not so big as would fill a pipe of a quarter of an inch diameter,
trills away out of the river, and sinks insensibly into the ground.

In this manner it goes away, lessening the stream for above
a mile, near two, and these they call the Swallows; and the
whole ground on the bank of the river, where it is flat and low,
is full of these subterraneous passages; so that if on any sudden
rain the river swells over the banks, it is observ'd not to go
back into the chanel again when the flood abates, but to sink
away into the earth in the meadows, where it spreads; a
remarkable proof of which I shall give presently.

150 DEFOE'S TOUR

But now take this with you as you go, that these Swallows,
for they are many, and not one calPd the Swallow, as is said in
Mr. Camden; these Swallows (I say) tho' they diminish the
stream much, do not so drink it up as to make it disappear:
But that, where it crosses the road near Mickleham, it runs,
as I have said, very sharp and broad, nor did I ever know it
dry in the dryest summer in that place, tho' I hVd in the
neighbourhood several years: On the contrary I have known
it so deep, that waggons and carriages have not dar'd to go
thro 7 ; but never knew it, I say, dry in the greatest time of
drought.

Below this place the hills rise again on the other side very
high, and particularly on the ridge, which the country people
call the Ashcom-Hills, and they seem to force the river again
west; so it surrounds most of the park I mentioned above, and
has several bridges upon it, and by this time indeed, so much
of it is sunk away, that in a very dry summer the chanel, tho'
full of water in pits and holes cannot be perceiv'd to run; but
this must be, I say, in a very dry season, and still there is the
chanel visible where it runs at other times fiercely enough.

This part which I say has the least water, continuing about
half a mile, we then perceive the chanel insensibly to have more
water than before: That is to say, that as it sunk in gradually and
insensibly, so it takes vent again in the like manner in thousands
of little springs, and unseen places, very few in any quantity,
till in another half mile, it is a full river again, and passes in
full streams under Leatherhead-Bridge, as above, and for the
truth of this, I appeal to the knowledge of the inhabitants of
Barking, Mickleham, Leatherhead, and all the country round.

A farther proof of this, and which is the account which
I promised above, relating to the gradual sinking away of the
water, take as follows: It was in the year 1676, in the month
of October, or thereabouts, that there happen'd a very sudden
hasty land flood, which swell'd the river to a very great height;
and particularly so high, that at Beechworth-Castle, and other
gentlemen's seats, near the river, where they had fish-ponds
that were fed by the river, it over-flowed their ponds, and
carry'd off all their fish, or at least they thought so: Sir Adam
Brown liv'd then at Beechworth-Castle, a gentleman in those
days, well known in the country, for he was many years Knight
of the Shire, of the family of Browns, a branch of the house of
Montacutes at Midhurst, mentioned before, but a collateral
line; another of the Browns Hv'd at Bucknal, another at

SURREY 151

Darking, which I mention chiefly, because some ignorant writers,
particularly the late Atlas, has confounded the title of Monta-
cute with the sirname of Montague, which is quite another
family, and generation, not at all ally'd, and nothing near so
antient, but this by the by.

Sir Adam Brown's son, and the young gentlemen of these, and
other neighbouring families, disturb'd at the loss of their fish,
and mov'd by the report, came all down to Darking; where they
raised a little troop of the young fellows and boys of the town,
and all went together, to that part of the river which runs by
the foot of the Stomacher, as I said they call it, on Box-Hill.

There was a low flat piece of meadow ground, lying close to
the river on one side; just opposite to which, the hill lying also
close to the river, made up the bank on the other: This piece
of ground might contain about four or five acres, and lying
hollow in the middle, like the shape of a dripping-pan, was by
the overflowing of the river full of water, and so full, that the
bank, which lay close to the river, tho' higher than the rest, was
not to be seen.

The gentlemen set themselves and all their little army at
work, to raise this bank, which I say, lay between the river and
the hollow of the field, so as to separate the water in the hollow
part of the field from that in the river, and having so many
hands, they effected that part the first day; and made a solid
dam or bank, so that they cou'd walk upon it dry footed; then
they made a return to it, at the upper, or east end of the field;
so that in short, no more water could run into the field from any
part of the river.

When this was done, they built hutts or booths, and made
fires, and sent for victuals and drink to treat their young com-
pany, and there they encamp'd, as if they waited some great
event; and so indeed they did, for in about two nights and a
day, exclusive of the time they took in making their dams, the
water sunk all away in the field; and the consequence of that
was, that the fish being surrounded, were catch'd, as it were, in
a trap, for they cou'd not be swallow'd up with the water; and
the purchase fully recompenc'd their labour, for the like quantity
of fish, great and small, I believe was never taken at once in this
kingdom, out of so small a river.

This story would have nothing in it wonderful, or to make it
worth recording, were it not so evident a demonstration of the
manner of this river losing it self under ground, or being swal-
lowed up, as they call it; for this field where the water sunk

152 DEFOE'S TOUR

away is just at the place, which Mr. Cambden calls the Swallows,
near the village of Mickleham; and under the precipice of the
hill, and yet the water was two nights and a day, as I say,
sinking leisurely off; and in this manner, and in no other, does
the whole river, or so much of it as passes under ground, sink
away.

The town of Darking is eminent for several little things worth
observation; as first, for the great Roman highway, calTd
Stonny-street, which Mr. Cambden says, passes through the
very church-yard of this town: Secondly, for a little common
or heath, call'd the Cottman Dean, or the dean or heath of poor
cottagers, for so the word signifies, belonging to the town; and
where their alms-house stands; which some learned physicians
have singled out for the best air in England: Thirdly, for
Mr. Howard's house and garden, call'd Deaden, the garden is
so naturally mounded with hills, that it makes a compleat
amphitheatre, being an oblong square, the area about eighty
yards by forty, and the hills impassably steep, serve instead of
walls, and are handsomely planted with trees, whose tops
rising above one another gradually, as the hill rises at their
roots, make a most beautiful green wall, of perhaps fifty or
sixty foot high; at the north end, which is the entrance, is the
house, which closes it wholly; and at the south end, the antient
possessor, Mr. Howard, by what we call perforation, caused a
vault or cave to be made quite through the hill, which came
out again into a fine vineyard, which he planted the same
year, on the south side, or slope of the hill, and which they say
has produced since most excellent good wines, and a very great
quantity of them.

Mr. Howard was an honourable and antient gentleman,
younger brother to the old Duke of Norfolk, then living: (viz.)
In the year 1676, for in that year, or the year before, was that
vineyard planted, and tho } Mr. Howard was then upwards of
sixty years of age, he enjoy'd that pleasant seat near thirty
years after.

At this town livM another antient gentleman and his son,
of a very good family; (viz.) Augustin Bellson, Esq; or as some
write it Belschon, the father was measur'd seven foot and half
an inch high, allowing all that he might have sunk, for his age,
being seventy one years old; and the son measur'd two inches
taller than his father.

These families were Roman, as were several others there-
abouts at that time; but were soon after that, upon the breaking

SURREY 153

out of the Popish Plot, dispers'd; some one way, and some
another, as the fate of those times oblig'd them to do; tho'
I do not remember that any part of the scenes of treason were
lay'd about Barking, or that any of the Romish gentlemen
thereabout were charg'd with being concern'd with them.

The market of Barking cannot be omitted, as it relates to my
design of giving an account of the several parts of England;
from whence this great city of London, and all the dainty
doings, which are to be seen there, as to eating, is supply'd
with provisions.

This market is of all the markets in England famous for
poultry; and particularly for the fattest geese, and the largest
capons, the name of a Barking Capon being well known among
the poulterers in Leaden-Hall Market; in a word, they are
brought to this market from as far as Horsham in Sussex; and
'tis the business of all the country, on that side for many miles,
to breed and fatten them up, insomuch, that 'tis like a manu-
facture to the country people; and some of these capons are
so large, as that they are little inferior to turkeys; and I have
seen them sold for 4*. to 4$. 6d. each, and weighing from
4/. to 5 or 6L a peice.

Once a year here is also a fair, (viz.) on Holy Thursday,
chiefly for lambs, and the greatest fair in England of that
kind: I have pass'd over the so much celebrated house of
Mr. Evelyn at Wotton, near Barking, not that it is not worth
notice, but because so many other writers have said so much of it.

On the top of Box-Hill, and in view of this town, grows a
very great beech-tree, which by way of distinction is call'd
the Great Beech, and a very great tree it is; but I mention it
on the following account, under the shade of this tree, was a
little vault or cave, and here every Sunday, during the summer
season, there used to be a rendezvous of coaches and horsemen,
with abundance of gentlemen and ladies from Epsome to take
the air, and walk in the box-woods; and in a word, divert, or
debauch, or perhaps both, as they thought fit, and the game
encreased so much, that it began almost on a sudden, to make a
great noise in the country.

A vintner who kept the KingVArms-Inn, at Barking, taking
notice of the constant and unusual flux of company thither,
took the hint from the prospect of his advantage, which offered,
and obtaining leave of Sir Adam Brown, whose mannor and
land it was, furnish'd this little cellar or vault with tables,
chairs, &c. and with wine and eatables to entertain the ladies

154 DEFOE'S TOUR

and gentlemen on Sunday nights, as above; and this was so
agreeable to them as that it encreased the company exceedingly;
in a word, by these means, the concourse of gentry, and in
consequence of the country people, became so great, that the
place was like a little fair; so that at length the country began
to take notice of it, and it was very offensive, especially to the
best governed people; this lasted some years, I think two or
three, and tho' complaint was made of it to Sir Adam Brown,
and the neighbouring justices; alledging the revelling, and the
indecent mirth that was among them, and on the Sabbath Day
too, yet it did not obtain a suitable redress: whereupon a certain
set of young men, of the town of Darking, and perhaps prompted
by some others, resenting the thing also, made an unwelcome
visit to the place once on a Saturday night, just before the
usual time of their wicked mirth, and behold when the coaches
and ladies, &c. from Epsome appear'd the next afternoon, they
found the cellar or vault, and all that was in it, blown up with
gun-powder; and so secret was it kept, that upon the utmost
enquiry it cou'd never be heard, or found out who were the
persons that did it: That action put an end to their revels for
a great while; nor was the place ever repaired that I heard of,
at least it was not put to the same wicked use that it was
employed in before.

From this hill, and particularly from this part of it, is a fair
view in clear weather quite over the Wild of Sussex, to the
South-Downs; and by the help of glasses, those who know where
things are scituated, may plainly see the town of Horsham,
Ashdown-Forest, the Duke of Somerset's house at Petworth,
and the South-Downs, as they range between Brighthelmston
and Arundel; besides an unbounded prospect into Kent.

The vale beneath this hill is for many miles east and west,
call'd the Holmward, by some the Holm-Wood, others Holms-
dale; but more vulgarly the Homeward: In the woody part of
which are often found outlying red deer, and in the days of
King James II. or while he was Duke of York, they have
hunted the largest stags here that have been seen in England;
the duke took great care to have them preserved for his own
sport, and they were so preserv'd for many years; but have
since that been most of them destroyed.

This Homeward, or Holmwood, is a vale, which is now
chiefly grown with furz, famous for the country people gathering
such quantities of strawberries, as they carry them to market
by horse-loads: I saw neither town or village, for many miles

SURREY 155

on it, much less any gentlemen's seats, only cottages and single
houses; but vast quantities of geese and poultry, which as is
said above, employs all the country in breeding them up: There
has been large timber here, (they say) but most of it is cut down
and gone, except that where there are any woods standing, the
timber is still exceeding good and large.

It is suggested that this place was in antient times so un-
passable a wild, or overgrown waste, the woods so thick, and
the extent so large, reaching far into Sussex, that it was the
retreat for many ages of the native Britons, who the Romans
cou'd never drive out; and after that it was the like to the
Saxons, when the Danes harrass'd the nation with their troops,
and ravag'd the ^ country wherever they came; and on this
account they retain here in memory the following lines.

This is Holmes Dale,

Never conquer'd, never shall.

But this is a peice of history, which I leave as I find it; the
country tho ? wild still, and perhaps having the same countenance
now in many places, as it had above a thousand years ago; yet
in other places is cultivated, and has roads passable enough in
the summer quite thro' it, on every side, and the woods are
cleared off in a great measure as above.

Keeping at the bottom of these hills, and yet not entered into
this vale, the county is dry, and rather sandy or gravel, and is
full of gentlemen's houses, and of good towns; but if we go but
a little to the right hand south, into the said wild part, 'tis a
deep, strong, and in the wet season, an unpassable clay.

Here travelling east at the foot of the hills, we came to
Rygate, a large market-town with a castle, and a mansion-
house, inhabited for some years by Sir John Parsons, once
Lord Mayor of London, and whose son is in a fair way to be so
also; being one of the aldermen and sheriffs of the said city at
the writing these sheets.

Here are two miserable borough towns too, which never-
theless send each of them two members to Parliament, to wit,
Gatton under the side of the hill, almost at Rygate; and Bleech-
ingly, more eastward on the same cross-road, which we were
upon before: In the first of these Sir John Thomson, (afterwards
Lord Haversham) having purchas'd the mannor, was always
elected; as Mr. Paul Docminique, an Italian merchant, has
been since: The last was for many years, the estate of Sir Robert
Clayton, a known citizen, and benefactor to the city of London,

i 5 6 DEFOE'S TOUR

whose posterity still enjoy it: And at either town the purchasers
seem to buy the election with the property.

At Nutfield, between Rygate and Bleechingly, is another
branch of the family of Evelyn, who have flourish' d there many
years, tho* in a kind of retreat, and are often chosen repre-
sentatives for the town of Bleechingly, which is just at
their door.

From hence, crossing still the roads leading from London
into Sussex, we come to a village calTd Godstone, which lyes on
the road from London to Lewis; and keeping on (east) we come
to Westerham, the first market town in Kent on that side:
This is a neat handsome well built market-town, and is full
of gentry, and consequently of good company. The late Earl
of Jersey built, or rather finished, for it was begun by a private
gentleman, a very noble house here, which still remains in the
family, and is every year made finer and finer.

All this part of the country is very agreeably pleasant, whole-
some and fruitful, I mean quite from Guildford to this place;
and is accordingly overspread with good towns, gentlemen's
houses, populous villages, abundance of fruit, with hop-grounds
and cherry orchards, and the lands well cultivated; but all on
the right-hand, that is to say, south, is exceedingly grown with
timber, has abundance of waste and wild grounds, and forests,
and woods, with many large iron-works, at which they cast
great quantities of iron caldrons, <imney-backs, furnaces,
retorts, boiling pots, and all such necessary things of iron;
besides iron cannon, bomb-shells, stink-pots, hand-grenadoes,
and cannon ball, &c. in an infinite quantity, and which turn to
very great account; tho j at the same time the works are pro-
digiously expensive, and the quantity of wood they consume is
exceeding great, which keeps up that complaint I mention'd
before; that timber would grow scarce, and consequently dear,
from the great quantity consumed in the iron-works in Sussex.

From hence going forward east, we come to Riverhead, a
town on the road from London to Tunbridge; and then having
little to speak of in Kent, except some petty market-towns,
such as Wrotham, commonly call'd Roptham, Town-Mailing,
Cranbrook, and the like; of which something had been observed,
as I traveled forward, in the beginning of this circuit, I turn'd
north, and came to Bromley, a market-town, made famous by
an hospital, lately built there by Dr. Warner, Lord Bishop of
Rochester, for the relief of the widows of clergy-men, which
was not only well endow'd at first, but has had many gifts and

SURREY 157

charities bestow'd on it since, and is a very noble foundation
for the best of charities in the world; besides it has been an
example, and an encouragement to the like in other places,
and has already been imitated, as Mr. Camden's most reverend
continuator assures us, by the Bishops of Winchester and
Salisbury in their diocesses.

Near this town we turn'd away by Beckenham, and thro*
Norwood to Croydon; in the way we saw Dullige or Sydenham
Wells, where great crouds of people throng every summer from
London to drink the waters, as at Epsome and Tunbridge; only
with this difference, that as at Epsome and Tunbridge, they go
more for the diversion of the season, for the mirth and the
company; for gaming, or intrieguing, and the like, here they
go for meer physick, and this causes another difference; Namely,
that as the nobility and gentry go to Tunbridge, the merchants
and rich citizens to Epsome; so the common people go chiefly
to Dullwich and Stretham; and the rather also, because it lyes
so near London, that they can walk to it in the morning, and
return at night; which abundance do; that is to say, especially
of a Sunday, or on holidays, which makes the better sort also
decline the place; the croud on those days being both unruly
and unmannerly.

Croydon is a great corn-market, but chiefly for oats and
oatmeal, all for London still; the town is large and full of
citizens from London, which makes it so populous; it is the
antient palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury, and several
of them lye buried here; particularly that great man, Arch-
bishop Whitgift, who not only repaired the palace, but built
the famous hospital and school, which remains there to this
day, to the singular honour of the giver.

In the gardens of this episcopal palace, the Lady Dowager
Onslow, mother of the present lord of that name, of whom
mention has been made, was very unhappily drown'd about two
year since, in one of the fish-ponds, whether she did it herself,
or whether by accident, or how, 'tis not the business of such
a work as this to enquire; her daughter being the wife of Sir
John Williams, merchant of London, had hired the house, and
she was in his family.

From hence we pass'd by Beddington, where is still the seat
or mansion house of Sir Nicholas Carew, it was a fine building
in Mr. Camden's time; but is now almost rebuilt from the
ground, by the present owner, Sir Nicholas Carew, who now
possesses that estate, and who is one of the representatives for

i 5 8 DEFOE'S TOUR

the county of Surrey; the house is magnificently great, and
the gardens are exquisitely fine; yet architects say, that the
two wings are too deep for the body of the house, that they
should either have been wider asunder, or not so long; the court
before them is extreamly fine, and the canal in the park, before
the court, is so well that nothing can be better, having a river
running through it; the gardens are exceedingly enlarged', they
take up all the flat part of the park, with vista's, or prospects
thro' the park, for two or three miles; the orange-trees con-
tinue, and are indeed wonderful; they are the only standard
orange-trees in England, and have moving houses to cover
them in the winter; they are loaded with fruit in the summer,
and the gardners told us, they have stood in the ground where
they now grow above 80 years.

I am sorry to record it to the reproach of any person in their
grave, that the ancestor of this family, tho' otherwise a very
honest gentleman, if fame lyes not, was so addicted to gaming,
and so unfortunately over-match'd in his play, that he lost this
noble seat and parks, and all the fine addenda which were then
about it, at one night's play, some say, at one cast of dice, to
Mr. Harvey of Comb, near Kingston; What misery had befallen
the family, if the right of the winner had been prosecuted with
rigour, as by what I have heard it would have been, is hard to
write: But God had better things in store for the gentleman's
posterity than he took thought for himself; and the estate
being entaiPd upon the heir, the loser dy'd before it came into
possession of the winner, and so it has been preserved, and the
present gentleman has not only recovered the disaster, but as
above, has exceedingly improv'd it all.

From hence it is but a little mile to Cashalton, a country
village scituate among innumerable springs of water, which all
together, form a river in the very street of the town, and joining
the other springs which come from Croydpn and Bedington,
make one stream, which are call'd the river Wandell: This
village seated among such delightful springs, is yet all standing
upon firm chalk; and having the Downs dose adjoining, makes
the most agreeable spot on all this side of London, as is abun-
dantly testify^ by its being, as it were, crouded with fine
houses of the citizens of London; some of which are built with
such a profusion of expence, that they look rather like seats
of the nobility, than the country houses of citizens and mer-
chants; particularly those of Sir William Scawen, lately
deceased; who besides an immense estate in money has left,

SURREY 159

as I was told, one article of nine thousand pounds a year to
his heir; and was himself since the Fire of London, only
Mr. Scawen, a Hamborough merchant, dealing by commission,
and not in any view of such an encrease of wealth, or any
thing like it.

The other house is that of Sir John Fellows, late sub-governor
of the South-Sea Company, who having the misfortune to fall
in the general calamity of the late directors, lost all his unhappy
wealth, which he had gain'd in the company, and a good and
honestly gotten estate of his own into the bargain: I cannot
dwell on the description of all the fine houses in this and the
neighbouring vilages; I shall speak of them again in bulk with
their neighbours, of Mitcham, Stretham, Tooting, Qapham, and
others; but I must take a trip here cross the Downs to Epsome.

Banstead Downs need no description other than this, that
their being so near London, and surrounded as they are with
pleasant villages, and being in themselves perfectly agreeable,
the ground smooth, soft, level and dry; (even in but a few
hours after rain) they conspire to make the most delightful
spot of ground, of that kind in all this part of Britain.

When on the publick race days they are covered with coaches
and ladies, and an innumerable company of horsemen, as weli
gentlemen as citizens, attending the sport; and then adding
to the beauty of the sight, the racers flying over the course,,
as if they either touch'd not, or felt not the ground they
run upon; I think no sight, except that of a victorious army,
under the command of a Protestant King of Great Britain
could exceed it.

About four miles, over those delicious Downs, brings us to
Epsome, and if you will suppose me to come there in the month
of July, or thereabouts, you may think me to come in the middle
of the season, when the town is full of company, and all disposed
to mirth and pleasantry; for abating one unhappy stock jobbing
year, when England took leave to act the frantick, for a little
while; and when every body's heads were turn'd with projects
and stocks, I say, except this year, we see nothing of business in
the whole conversation of Epsome; even the men of business,
who are really so when in London; whether it be at the
Exchange, the Alley, or the Treasury-Offices, and the Court;
yet here they look as if they had left all their London thoughts
behind them, and had separated themselves to mirth and good
company; as if they came hither to unbend the bow of the
mind, and to give themselves a loose to their innocent pleasures;

i6o DEFOE'S TOUR

I say, innocent, for such they may enjoy here, and such any
man may make his being here, if he pleases.

As, I say, this place seems adapted wholly to pleasure, so the
town is suited to it; 'tis all rural, the houses are built at large,
not many together, with gardens and ground about them; that
the people who come out of their confin'd dwellings in London,
may have air and liberty, suited to the design of country lodgings.

You have no sooner taken lodgings, and enter'd the apart-
ments, but if you are any thing known, you walk out, to see
who and who's together; for 'tis the general language of the
place, Come let's go see the town, folks don't come to Epsome
to stay within doors.

The next morning you are welcom'd with the musick under
your chamber window; but for a shilling or two you get rid
of them, and prepare for going to the Wells.

Here you have the compliment of the place, are enter'd into
the list of the pleasant company, so you become a citizen of
Epsome for that summer; and this costs you another shilling^
or if you please, half a crown: Then you drink the waters, or
walk about as if you did; dance with the ladies, tho* it be in
your gown and slippers; have musick and company of what
kind you like, for every man may sort himself as he pleases; The
grave with the grave, and the gay with the gay, the bright,
and the wicked; all may be match'd if they seek for it, and
perhaps some of the last may be over-match'd, if they are not
upon their guard.

After the morning diversions are over, and every one are
walk'd home to their lodgings, the town is perfectly quiet
again; nothing is to be seen, the Green, the Great Room, the
raffling-shops all are (as if it was a trading town on a holiday)
shut up; there's little stirring, except footmen, and maid
servants, going to and fro of errands, and higglers and butchers,
carrying provisions to people's lodgings.

This takes up the town till dinner is over, and the company
have repos'd for two or three hours in the heat of the day;
then the first thing you observe is, that the ladies come to the
shady seats, at their doors, and to the benches in the groves,
and cover -d walks; (of which, every house that can have them,
is generally supplyM with several). Here they refresh with cooling
liquors, agreeable conversation, and innocent mirth.

Those that have coaches, or horses (as soon as the sun declines)
take the air on the Downs, and those that have not, content
themselves with staying a little later, and when the air grows

SURREY 161

cool, and the sun low, they walk out under the shade of the
hedges and trees, as they find it for their diversion: In the
mean time, towards evening the Bowling-green begins to fill,
the musick strikes up in the Great Room, and company draws
together a-pace: And here they never fail of abundance of mirth,
every night being a kind of ball; the gentlemen bowl, the ladies
dance, others raffle, and some rattle; conversation is the general
pleasure of the place, till it grows late, and then the company
draws off; and, generally speaking, they are pretty well as to
keeping good hours; so that by eleven a clock the dancing
generally ends, and the day closes with good wishes, and
appointments to meet the next morning at the Wells, or
somewhere else.

The retir'd part of the world, of which also there are very
many here, have the waters brought home to their apartments
in the morning, where they drink and walk about a little, for
assisting the physical operation, till near noon, then dress
dinner, and repose for the heat as others do; after which they
visit, drink tea, walk abroad, come to their lodgings to supper,
then walk again till it grows dark, and then to bed: The greatest
part of the men, I mean of this grave sort, may be supposed to
be men of business, who are at London upon business all the
day, and thronging to their lodgings at night, make the families,
generally speaking, rather provide suppers than dinners; for 'tis
very frequent for the trading part of the company to place
their families here, and take their horses every morning to
London, to the Exchange, to the Alley, or to the warehouse, and
be at Epsome again at night; and I know one citizen that
practis'd it for several years together, and scarce ever lay a
night in London during the whole season.

This, I say, makes the good wives satisfy themselves with
providing for the family, rather at night than at noon, that
their husbands may eat with them; after which they walk
abroad as above, and these they call the sober citizens, and those
are not much at the Wells, or at the Green; except sometimes,
when they give themselves a holiday, or when they get sooner
home than usual.

Nor are these which I call the more retir'd part the company,
the least part of those that fill up the town of Epsome, nor is
their way of living so retir'd, but that there is a great deal of
society, mirth, and good manners, and good company among
these too.

The fine park of the late Earl of Berkeley, near Epsome, was

162 DEFOE'S TOUR

formerly a great addition to the pleasure of the place, by the
fine walks and cool retreats there; but the earl finding it abso-
lutely necessary, for a known reason, to shut it up, and not
permit any walking there, that relief to the company was abated
for some years; but the pleasures of nature are so many round
the town, the shady trees so every where planted, and now
generally well grown, that it makes Epsome like a great park
fill'd with little groves, lodges and retreats for coolness of air,
and shade from the sun; and I believe, I may say, it is not to
be match'd in the world, on that account; at least, not in so
little a space of ground.

It is to be observed too, that for shady walks, and innumerable
numbers of trees planted before the houses, Epsome differs
much from it self, that is to say, as it was twenty or thirty
years ago; for then those trees that were planted, were gener-
ally young, and not grown; and now not only all the trees then
young, are grown large and fair, but thousands are planted
since; so that the town, at a distance, looks like a great wood full
of houses, scattered every where, all over it.

In the winter this is no place for pleasure indeed; as it is full
of mirth and gayety in the summer, so the prospect in the
winter presents you with little, but good houses shut up, and
windows fastened; the furniture taken down, the families
remov'd, the walks out of repair, the leaves off of the trees,
and the people out of the town; and which is still worse, the
ordinary roads both to it, and near it, except only on the side
of the Downs, are deep, stiff, full of sloughs, and, in a word,
unpassable; for all the country, the side of the Downs, as I have
said, only excepted, is a deep stiff clay; so that there's no riding
in the winter without the utmost fatiegue, and some hazard,
and this is the reason that Epsome is not (like Hampstead or
Richmond) full of company in winter as well as summer.

From Epsome that I might thoroughly visit the county of
Surrey, I rode over those clays, and through very bad roads to
Kingstone, and from thence keeping the bank of the river on my
right hand, I had a fine view of Hampton-Court, at a distance,
but had reserv'd it for another journey; and was bound now in
search of a piece of antiquity to satisfy my own curiosity, this
was to Oatland, that I might see the famous place where Julius
Caesar pass'd the river Thames in the sight of the British army,
and notwithstanding they had stuck the river full of sharp stakes
for three miles together.

The people said several of those stakes were still to be seen

SURREY 163

in the bottom of the river, having stood there for now above
1760 years; but they cou'd show me none of them, tho' they
call the place Coway Stakes to this day; I cou'd make little
judgment of the thing, only from this, that it really seems
probable, that this was the first place where Caesar at that time
cou'd find the river fordable, or any way passable to him, who
had no boats, no pontons, and no way to make bridges over,
in the teeth of so powerful, and so furious an enemy; but the
Roman valour and discipline surmounted all difficulties, and
he pass'd the army, routing the Britons; whose king and general,
Cassibellanus, never offend a pitch'd battle to the Romans
afterward.

Satisfy'd with what little I cou'd see here, which indeed was
nothing at all, but the meer place, said to be so; and which it
behov'd me to believe, only because it was not unlikely to be
true; I say, satisfy'd with this, I came back directly to King-
stone, a good market-town, but remarkable for little, only that
they say, the antient British and Saxon kings were usually
crown'd here in former times, which I will neither assert or deny.

But keeping the river now on my left, as I did before on my
right-hand, drawing near to London, we came to Hame and
Peterson, little villages; the first, famous for a most pleasant
pallace of the late Duke of Lauderdale, close by the river;
a house King Charles II. used to be frequently at, and be
exceedingly pleased with; the avenues of this fine house to the
land side, come up to the end of the village of Peterson, where
the wall of New Park comes also close to the town, on the
other side; in an angle of which stood a most delicious house,
built by the late Earl of Rochester, Lord High Treasurer in
King James IFs. reign, as also in part of Queen Ann's reign,
which place he discharg'd so well, that we never heard of any
misapplications, so much as suggested, much less inquired after.

I am oblig'd to say only, that this house stood here; for even
while this is writing the place seems to be but smoaking with
the ruins of a most unhappy disaster, the whole house being
a few months ago burnt down to the ground with a fire, so
sudden, and so furious, that the family who were all at home,
had scarce time to save their lives.

Nor was the house, tho' so exquisitely finished, so beautiful
within and without, the greatest loss sustained; the rich furni-
ture, the curious collection of paintings; and above all, the most
curious collection of books, being the library of the first Earl
of Clarendon, Lord Chancellor of England, and author of that

164 DEFOE'S TOUR

most excellent History of the Rebellion, of which the world
knows so much; I say, this library, as I am assur'd, was here
wholly consum'd; a loss irreparable, and not to be sufficiently
regretted by all lovers of learning, having among other valuable
things, several manuscripts relating to those times, and to
things transacted by himself, and by the king his master, both
at home and abroad ; and of other antient things, collected by that
noble and learned author in foreign countries ; which both for their
rariety, antiquity, and authority, were of an inestimable value.

From hence we come to Richmond, the delightful retreat of
their royal highnesses, the Prince and Princess of Wales, and
where they have spent the fine season every summer for some
years: The prince's Court being so near must needs have filTd
Richmond, which was before a most agreeable retreat for the
first and second rate gentry, with a great deal of the best
company in England: This town and the country adjacent,
encrease daily in buildings, many noble houses for the accom-
modation of such, being lately rais'd and more in prospect: But
'tis fear'd should the prince come, for any cause that may happen,
to quit that side of the country, those numerous buildings must
abate in the value which is now set upon them: The company
however, at Richmond, is very great in the winter, when the
prince's Court is not there; because of the neighbourhood of so
many gentlemen, who live constantly there, and thereabouts;
and of its nearness to London also; and in this it has the
advantage both of Epsome and Tunbridge.

Here are wells likewise, and a mineral-water, which tho'
not so much us'd as that at Epsome and Tunbridge, are yet
sufficient to keep up the forms of the place, and bring the
company together hi the morning, as the musick does in the
evening; and as there is more of quality in and about the place
than is ordinarily to be seen at Epsome, the company is more
shining, and sometimes even illustriously bright.

Mr. Temple created Baron Temple, of the kingdom of Ireland,
even since this circuit was performed; and who is the son and
successor to the honour, estate, and great part of the character
of the great Sir William Temple, has a fine seat and gardens
(hard by) at Shene; The gardens are indeed exquisitely fine,
being finished, and even contriv'd by the great genius of Sir
William, his father; and as they were his last delight in life,
so they were every way suited to be so, to a man of his sense and
capacity, who knew what kind of life was best fitted to make
a man's last days happy

SURREY 165

It is not easy to describe the beauty with which the banks of
the Thames shine on either side of the river, from hence to
London, much more than our ancestors, even of but one age
ago, knew any thing of: If for pleasant villages, great houses,
palaces, gardens, &c. it was true in Queen Elizabeth's time,
according to the poet, that

The Thames with royal Tyber may compare.

I say, if this were true at that time, what may be said of it
now? when for one fine house that was to be seen then, there
are a hundred; nay, for ought I know, five hundred to be seen
now, even as you sit still in a boat, and pass up and down
the river.

First beginning from Ham-House, as above, the prince's
palace salutes the eye, being formerly no more than a lodge in
the park, and by that means belonging to the ranger, who was
then, the (since unhappy) Duke of Ormond, and who, with other
branches of a noble estate, lost this among the rest by his
precipitate retreat from the Parliamentary justice: I have seen
many of the seats of the nobility in France, and some larger,
but none finer than this, except such as had been layM out at
the royal expence.

From Richmond to London, the river sides are full of villages,
and those villages so full of beautiful buildings, charming
gardens, and rich habitations of gentlemen of quality, that
nothing in the world can imitate it; no, not the country for
twenty miles round Paris, tho' that indeed is a kind of prodigy.

To enumerate the gentlemen's houses in their view, would
be too long for this work to describe them, would fill a large
folio; it shall suffice to observe something concerning the
original of the strange passion, for fine gardens, which has so
commendably possess'd the English gentlemen of late years,
for 'tis evident it is but of late years.

It is since the Revolution that our English gentlemen, began
so universally, to adorn their gardens with those plants, we call
ever greens, which leads me to a particular observation that
may not be improper in this place; King William and Queen
Mary introduced each of them two customs, which by the
people's imitating them became the two idols of the town, and
indeed of the whole kingdom; the queen brought in (i.) the
love of fine East-India callicoes, such as were then caJTd
Masslapatan chints, atlasses, and fine painted callicoes, which
afterwards descended into the humours of the common people

166 DEFOE'S TOUR

so much, as to make them greivous to our trade, and ruining to
our manufactures and the poor; so that the Parliament were
oblig'd to make two Acts at several times to restrain, and at
last prohibit the use of them: (2.) The queen brought in the
custom or humour, as I may call it, of furnishing houses with
china-ware, which increased to a strange degree afterwards,
piling their china upon the tops of cabinets, scrutores, and
every chymney-piece, to the tops of the ceilings, and even
setting up shelves for their china-ware, where they wanted
such places, till it became a grievance in the expence of it, and
even injurious to their families and estates.

The good queen far from designing any injury to the country
where she was so entirely belov'd, little thought she was in
either of these laying a foundation for such fatal excesses, and
would no doubt have been the first to have reform'd them had
she lived to see it.

The king on his part introduced (i.) the love of gardening;
and (2.) of painting: In the first his majesty was particularly
delighted with the decoration of ever greens, as the greatest
addition to the beauty of a garden, preserving the figure of the
place, even in the roughest part of an inclement and tempestuous
winter.

Sir Stephen Fox's gardens at Istleworth, and Sir William
Temple's at Eastshene, mentioned above, were the only two
gardens where they had entirely persued this method at that
time, and of Sir Stephen's garden, this was to be said, that almost
all his fine ever-greens were raised in the places where they
stood; Sir Stephen taking as much delight to see them rise
gradually, and form them into what they were to be, as to buy
them of the nursery gardeners, finish' d to his hand; besides
that by this method his greens, the finest in England, cost him
nothing but the labour of his servants, and about ten years
patience; which if they were to have been purchased, would
not have cost so little as ten thousand pounds, especially at that
time: It was here that King William was so pleased that
according to his majesty's usual expression, when he lik'd a
place very well, he stood, and looking round him from the head
of one of the canals, Well says his majesty, I cou'd dwell here
five days; every thing was so exquisitely contrived, finish'd,
and well kept, that the king, who was allow'd to be the best
judge of such things then living in the world, did not so much
as once say, this or that thing cou'd have been better.

With the particular judgment of the king, all the gentlemen

SURREY 167

in England began to fall in; and in a few years fine gardens,
and fine houses began to grow up in every corner; the king
began with the gardens at Hampton-Court and Kensington,
and the gentlemen follow'd every where, with such a gust that
the alteration is indeed wonderful thro' the whole kingdom;
but no where more than in the two counties of Middlesex and
Surrey, as they border on the river Thames; the beauty and
expence of which are only to be wonder J d at, not described; they
may indeed be guess'd at, by what is seen in one or two such
as these nam'd : But I think to enter into a particular of them
would be an intolerable task, and tedious to the reader.

That these houses and gardens are admirably beautiful in
then 1 kind, and in their separate, and distinct beauties, such as
their scituation, decoration, architect, furniture, and the like,
must be granted; and many descriptions have been accurately
given of them, as of Ham-House, Qew-Green, the Prince's House,
Sir William Temple's, Sir Charles Hedges, Sion-House, Osterly,
Lord Ranelagh's at Chelsea-Hospital; the many noble seats
in Istleworth, Twittenham, Hamersmith, Fullham, Puttney,
Chelsea, Battersea, and the like.

But I find none has spoken of what I call the distant glory of
all these buildings: There is a beauty in these things at a
distance, taking them en passant, and in perspective, which few
people value, and fewer understand; and yet here they are more
truly great, than in all their private beauties whatsoever; Here
they reflect beauty, and magnificence upon the whole country,
and give a kind of a character to the island of Great Britain in
general. The banks of the Sein are not thus adorn'd from Paris
to Roan, or from Paris to the Loign above the city: The Danube
can show nothing like it above and below Vienna, or the Po
above and below Turin; the whole country here shines with
a lustre not to be describ'd; Take them in a remote view, the
fine seats shine among the trees as jewels shine in a rich coronet;
in a near sight they are meer pictures and paintings; at a
distance they are all nature, near hand all art; but both in the
extreamest beauty.

In a word, nothing can be more beautiful; here is a plain and
pleasant country, a rich fertile soil, cultivated and enclosed to
the utmost perfection of husbandry, then bespangled with
villages; those villages filTd with these houses, and the houses
surrounded with gardens, walks, vistas, avenues, representing
all the beauties of building, and all the pleasures of planting:
It is impossible to view these countries from any rising ground
G 8ao

168 DEFOE'S TOUR

and not be ravish'd with the delightful prospect: For example,
suppose you take your view from the little rising hills about
Clapham, if you look to the east, there you see the pleasant
villages of Peckham and Camberwell, with some of the finest
dwellings about London; as (i) the Lord Powis's at Peckham:
(2) a house built by a merchant, one Collins, but now standing
empty at Camberwell, but justly calTd a picture of a house, and
several others: Then turning south, we see Loughborough-House
near Kennington, Mr. Rowland's, now the Dutchess of Bedford's,
at Stretham; Sir Richard Temple's house near Croydon; a whole
town of fine houses at Cashalton; Sir Nicholas Carew's, and
Sir John Lake's at Bedington; Sir Theodore Janssen another
South-Sea forfeiture at Wimbleton; Sir James Bateman's at
Tooting; besides an innumerable number in Clapham it self:
On the south west also you have Mr. Harvey's at Coomb,
formerly the palace of a king; with all the villages mentioned
above, and the country adjoining fill'd with the palaces of the
British nobility and gentry already spoken of; looking north,
behold, to crown all, a fair prospect of the whole city of London
it self; the most glorious sight without exception, that the whole
world at present can show, or perhaps ever cou'd show since
the sacking of Rome in the European, and the burning the
Temple of Jerusalem in the Asian part of the world.

Add to all this, that these fine houses and innumerable more,
which cannot be spoken of here, are not, at least very few of
them, the mansion houses of families, the antient residences of
ancestors, the capital messuages of the estates; nor have the
rich possessors any lands to a considerable value about them;
but these are all houses of retreat, like the Bastides of Marseilles,
gentlemen's meer summer-houses, or citizen's country-houses;
whither they retire from the hurries of business, and from getting
money, to draw their breath in a clear air, and to divert them-
selves and families in the hot weather; and they that are shut
up, and as it were strip'd of their inhabitants in the winter, who
return to smoke and dirt, sin and seacoal, (as it was coursly
express'd) in the busy city; so that in short all this variety, this
beauty, this glorious show of wealth and plenty, is really a
view of the luxuriant age which we live in, and of the over-
flowing riches of the citizens, who in their abundance make these
gay excursions, and live thus deliciously all the summer, retiring
within themselves in the winter, the better to lay up for the
next summer's expence.

If this then is produc'd from the gay part of the town only,

SURREY 169

what must be the immense wealth of the city it self, where such
a produce is brought forth? where such prodigious estates are
raised in one man's age; instances of which we have seen in
those of Sir Josiah Chid, Sir John Lethulier, Sir James Bate-
man, Sir Robert Clayton, Sir William Scawen, and hundreds
more; whose beginnings were small, or but small compared, and
who have exceeded even the greatest part of the nobility of
England in wealth, at their death, and all of their own getting.

It is impossible in one journey to describe effectually this part
of the county of Surrey, lying from Kingston to London and
Greenwich, where I set out: That is, including the villages of
Richmond, Petersham, Eastshene, Mortlock, Putney, Wands-
worth, Barn-Elms, Battersey, Wimbleton, Tooting, Qapham,
Camberwell, Peckham and Deptford; the description would
swell with the stories of private families, and of the reasons of
these opulent foundations, more than with their history.

It would also take up a large chapter in this book, to but
mention the overthrow, and catastrophe of innumerable wealthy
city families, who after they have thought their houses estab-
lish'd, and have built their magnificent country seats, as well
as others, have sunk under the misfortunes of business, and
the disasters of trade, after the world has thought them pass'd
all possibility of danger; such as Sir Joseph Hodges, Sir Justus
Beck, the widow Cock at Camberwell, and many others; besides
all the late South-Sea directors, all which I chuse to have for-
gotten, as no doubt they desire to be, in recording the wealth
and opulence of this part of England, which I doubt not to
convince you infinitely out does the whole world.

I am come now to Southwark, a suburb to, rather than a part
of London; but of which this may be said with justice.

A royal city were not London by.

To give you a brief description of Southwark, it might be
calPd a long street, of about nine miles in length, as it is now
built on eastward; reaching from Vaux-Hall to London-Bridge,
and from the bridge to Deptford, all up to Deptford-Bridge,
which parts it from Greenwich, all the way winding and tuming
as the river winds and turns; except only in that part, which
reaches from Cuckold's-Point to Deptford, which indeed winds
more than the river does.

In the center, which is opposite to the bridge, it is thicken'd
with buildings, and may be reckon'd near a mile broad; (viz.)
from the bridge to the end of Kent-street and Blackman-street,

170 DEFOE'S TOUR

and about the Mint; but else the whole building is but narrow,
nor indeed can it be otherwise; considering the length of it.

The principal beauty of the borrough of Southwark, consists
in the prodigious number of its inhabitants: Take it as it was
antiently bounded, it contain' d nine parishes; but as it is now
extended, and, as I say, joins with Deptford, it contains eleven
large parishes: According to the weekly-bills, for the year
1722, the nine parishes only bury'd 4166, which is about one
sixth part of the whole body, calPd London; the bill of mortallity
for that year, amounting in all to 25750.

The first thing we meet with considerable, is at the Spring-
Garden, just at the corner, where the road turns away to go
from Vaux-Hall Turnpike, towards Newington, there are the
remains of the old lines cast up in the times of the Rebellion,
to fortify this side of the town; and at that corner was a very
large bastion, or rather a fort, and such indeed they call it;
which commanded all the pass on that side, and farther on,
where the openings near St. George's-Fields are, which they
now call the Ducking-Pond, there was another; the water they
call the Ducking-Pond, is evidently to this day the moat of the
fort, and the lines are so high, and so undemolish'd still, that
a very little matter would repair and perfect them again.

From hence they turned south east, and went to the windmill,
at the end of Blackman-street, where they cross'd the road,
and going to the end of Kent-street, we see another great
bastion; and then turning S.E. till they come to the end of
Barnaby-street, or rather beyond, among the tanners, and there
you see another fort, so plain, and so undemolish'd, the grass
growing now over the works, that it is as plain as it was, even
when it was thrown down.

Here is also another remain of antiquity, the vestiges of
which are easy to be traced; (viz.) The place where by strength
of men's hands, they turn'd the channel of this great river
of Thames, and made a new course for the waters, while the
great bridge, which is now standing, was built: Here it is evident
they tum'd the waters out: (viz.) About a place call'd Nine
Elms, just beyond Vaux-Hall, where now a little brook, from
the Wash-way at Kennington, and which they once attempted
to make navigable, enters the Thames, from thence it cross'd the
great road, a little beyond the end of the houses in Newington;
between which and Kennington Common, on the left of the
road, as you go south, there is a very large pond, or lake of
water, part of the channel not fill'd up to this day; from thence

SURREY 171

it enter'd the marshes between Rptherif and Deptford, where
for many years after there remained a drain for the water,
upon which was a large mill-pond and dam, and where since was
built the second great wet-dock, said to belong to the Duke of
Bedford's estate, and call'd at first Snellgrove's-Dock, because
built by one Mr. Snellgrove, a shipwright, whose building-
yards adjoin'd it. A farther description of Southwark, I refer
till I come to speak of London, as one general appellation for
the two cities of London and Westminster; and all the burrough
of Southwark, and all the buildings and villages included
within the bills of mortallity, make but one London, in the
general appellation, of which in its order. I am, &c.

THE END OF THE SECOND LETTER

LETTER m

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE SOUTH COASTS OF HAMPSHIRE,
WILTS, DORSETSHIRE, SOMERSETSHIRE, DEVONSHIRE, AND
CORNWALL

SIR, I find so much left to speak of, and so many things to say
in every part of England, that my journey cannot be barren of
intelligence, which way soever I turn; no, tho' I were to oblige
myself to say nothing of any thing that had been spoken of
before.

I intended once to have gone due west this journey; but then
I should have been obliged to croud my observations so close,
(to bring Hampton-Court, Windsor, Blenheim, Oxford, the
Bath and Bristol, all into one letter; all those remarkable places
lying in a line, as it were, in one point of the compass) as to
have made my letter too long, or my observations too light and
superficial, as others have done before me.

This letter will divide the weighty task, and consequently
make it fit lighter on the memory, be pleasanter to the reader,
and make my progress the more regular: I shall therefore take
in Hampton-Court and Windsor in this journey; the first at
my setting out, and the last at my return, and the rest as their
situation demands.

As I came down from Kingston, in my last circuit, by the
south bank of the Thames, on the Surrey side of the river; so
I go up to Hampton Court, now, on the north bank, and on the
Middlesex side, which I mention, because as the sides of the
country bordering on the river, lie parallel, so the beauty of
the country, the pleasant situations, the glory of innumerable
fine buildings, noblemens and gentlemens houses, and citizens
retreats, are so equal a match to what I had describ'd on the
other side, that one knows not which to give the preference to:
But as I must speak of them again, when I come to write of the
comity of Middlesex, which I have now purposely omitted;
so I pass them over here, except the palace of Hampton only,
which I mention'd in Middlesex, for the reasons above.

Hampton Court lyes on the north bank of the river Thames,

172

MIDDLESEX 173

about two small miles from Kingston, and on the road from
Stanes to Kingston Bridge; so that the road straightening the
parks a little, they were obliged to part the parks, and leave the
Paddock, and the Great Park, part on the other side the road ;
a testimony of that just regard that the Kings of England
always had, and still have, to the common good, and to the
service of the country, that they would not interrupt the course
of the road, or cause the poor people to go out of the way of
their business, to or from the markets and fairs, for any pleasure
of their own whatsoever.

The palace of Hampton-Court was first founded, and built
from the ground, by that great statesman, and favourite of
King Henry VIII. Cardinal Wolsey; and if it be a just observa-
tion any where, as is made from the situation of the old abbies
and monasteries, the clergy were excellent judges of the beauty
and pleasantness of the country, and chose always to plant in
the best; I say, if it was a just observation in any case, it was
in this; for if there be a situation on the whole river between
Stanes-Bridge and Windsor-Bridge, pleasanter than another, it
is this of Hampton; close to the river, yet not offended by the
rising of its waters in floods, or storms, near to the reflux of
the tides, but not quite so near as to be affected with any foul-
ness of the water, which the flowing of the tides generally is the
occasion of. The gardens extend almost to the bank of the river,
yet are never overflow'd; nor are there any marshes on either
side the river to make the waters stagnate, or the air unwhole-
some on that account. The river is high enough to be navigable,
and low enough to be a little pleasantly rapid; so that the
stream looks always chearful, not slow and sleeping, like a
pond. This keeps the waters always clear and dean, the bottom
in view, the fish playing, and in sight; and, in a word, it has
every thing that can make an inland; or, as I may call it, a
country river, pleasant and agreeable.

I shall sing you no songs here of the river in the first person
of a water nymph, a goddess, (and I know not what) according
to the humour of the ancient poets. I shall talk notfiing of the
marriage of old Isis, the male river, with the beautiful Thame,
the female river, a whimsy as simple as the subject was empty,
but I shall speak of the river as occasion presents, as it really is
made glorious by the splendor of its shores, gilded with noble
palaces, strong fortifications, large hospitals, and publick
buildings; with the greatest bridge, and the greatest city in the
world, made famous by the opulence of its merchants, the

I 7 4 DEFOE'S TOUR

encrease and extensiveness of its commerce; by its invincible
navies, and by the innumerable fleets of ships sailing upon it,
to and from all parts of the world.

As I meet with the river upwards in my travels thro* the
inland country, I shall speak of it, as it is the chanel for con-
veying an infinite quantity of provisions from remote counties
to London, and enriching all the counties again that lye near it,
by the return of wealth and trade from the city; and in describing
these things I expect both to inform and divert my readers,
and speak, in a more masculine manner, more to the dignity
of the subject, and also more to their satisfaction, than I could
do any other way.

There is little more to be said of the Thames, relating to
Hampton-Court, than that it adds, by its neighbourhood, to
the pleasure of the situation; for as to passing by water too and
from London; tho' in summer 'tis exceeding pleasant, yet the
passage is a little too long to make it easy to tie ladies, especially
to be crowded up in the small boats, which usually go upon the
Thames for pleasure.

The prince and princess, indeed, I remember came once
down by water, upon the occasion of her royal highness's being
great with child, and near her time; so near, that she was
delivered within two or three days after: But this passage being
in the royal barges, with strength of oars, and the day exceeding
fine, the passage, I say, was made very pleasant, and still the
more so, for being short. Again, this passage is all the way
with the stream, whereas, in the common passage, upwards,
great part of the way is against the stream, which is slow
and heavy.

But be the going and coming how it will by water, 'tis an
exceeding pleasant passage by land, whether we go by the
Surrey side or the Middlesex side of the water, of which I shall
say more in its place.

The situation of Hampton-Court being thus mention'd, and
its founder, 'tis to be mention'd next, that it fell to the Crown
in the forfeiture of his eminence the cardinal, when the king
seiz'd his effects and estate, by which this and Whitehall,
another house of his own building also, came to King Henry VIII.
two palaces fit for the Kings of England, erected by one cardinal,
are standing monuments of the excessive pride, as well as the
immense wealth of that prelate, who knew no bounds of his
insolence and ambition, till he was overthrown at once by the
displeasure of his master.

MIDDLESEX 175

Whoever knew Hampton-Court before it was begun to be
rebuilt, or alter'd, by the late King William, must acknowledge
it was a very compleat palace before, and fit for a king; and tho*
it might not, according to the modern method of building, or
of gardening, pass for a thing exquisitely fine; yet it had this
remaining to itself, and perhaps peculiar; namely, that it shewed
a situation exceedingly capable of improvement, and of being
made one of the most delightful palaces in Europe.

This Her Majesty Queen Mary was so sensible of, that while
the king had order'd the pulling down the old apartments, and
building it up in that most beautiful form, which we see them
now appear in, her majesty, impatient of enjoying so agreeable
a retreat, fix'd upon a building formerly made use of chiefly for
landing from the river, and therefore call'd the Water Gallery;
and here, as if she had been conscious that she had but a few
years to enjoy it, she ordered all the little neat curious things
to be done, which suited her own conveniences, and made it
the pleasantest little thing within doors that could possibly be
made, tho' its situation being such, as it could not be allowed
to stand after the great building was finish'd; we now see no
remains of it.

The queen had here her gallery of beauties, being the pictures,
at full length, of the principal ladies attending upon her majesty,
or who were frequently in her retinue; and this was the more
beautiful sight, because the originals were all in being, and
often to be compared with their pictures. Her majesty had here
a fine apartment, with a sett of lodgings, for her private retreat
only, but most exquisitely furnished; particularly a fine chints
bed, then a great uiriosity; another of her own work, while in
Holland, very magnificent, and several others; and here was
also her majesty's fine collection of Delft ware, which indeed
was very large and fine; and here was also a vast stock of fine
China ware, the like whereof was not then to be seen in England ;
the long gallery, as above, was filTd with this china, and every
other place, where it could be plac'd, with advantage.

The queen had here also a small bathing-room, made very
fine, suited either to hot or cold bathing, as the season should
invite; also a dairy, with all its conveniences, in which her
majesty took great delight: All these things were finished with
expedition, that here their majesties might repose while they
saw the main building go forward. While this was doing, the
gardens were laid out, the plan of them devised by^ the king
himself; and especially the amendments and alterations were

* G 8

176 DEFOE'S TOUR

made by the king, or the queen's particular special command,
or by both; for their majesties agreed so well in their fancy,
and had both so good judgment in the just proportions of
things, which are the principal beauties of a garden, that it
may be said they both order'd every thing that was done.

Here the fine parcel of limes, which form the semi-circle on
the south front of the house, by the iron gates, looking into the
park, were by the dextrous hand of the head gardener, remov'd,
after some of them had been almost thirty years planted in
other places, tho' not far of. I know the King of France, in the
decoration of the gardens of Versailles, had oaks removed, which,
by their dimensions, must have been above an hundred years
old, and yet were taken up with so much art, and by the strength
of such engines, by which such a monsterous quantity of earth
was raised with them, that the trees could not feel their remove;
that is to say, their growth was not at all hinder'd. This I confess,
makes the wonder much the less in those trees at Hampton-
Court gardens; but the performance was not the less difficult
or nice, however, in these, and they thrive perfectly well.

While the gardens were thus laid out, the king also directed
the laying the pipes for the fountain and jette d'eau's; and
particularly the dimensions of them, and what quantity of
water they should cast up, and encreas'd the number of them
after the first design.

The ground on the side of the other front, has receivM some
alterations since the taking down the water gallery; but not that
part immediately next the lodgings: The orange trees, and
fine Dutch bays, are plac'd within the arches of the building
under the first floor: so that the lower part of the house was
all one as a green house for some time: Here stands advanced,
on two pedestals of stone, two marble vases, or flower pots,
of most exquisite workmanship; the one done by an Englishman,
and the other by a German: Tis hard to say which is the best
performance, tho' the doing of it was a kind of tryal of skill
between them; but it gives us room, without partiality, to say
they were both masters of their art.

The parterre on that side descends from the terrass walk by
steps, and on the left a terrass goes down to the water-side,
from which the garden on the eastward front is overlook'd,
and gives a most pleasant prospect.

The fine scrolls and bordure of these gardens were at first
edg'd with box; but on the queen's disliking the smell, those
edgings were taken up, but have since been planted again, at

MIDDLESEX 177

least in many places, nothing making so fair and regular an
edging as box, or is so soon brought to its perfection.

On the north side of the house, where the gardens seem'd
to want skreening from the weather, or the view of the chapel,
and some part of the old building required to be cover'd from the
eye; the vacant ground, which was large, is very happily cast
into a wilderness, with a labyrinth, and espaliers so high, that
they effectually take off all that part of the old building, which
would have been offensive to the sight. This labyrinth and
wilderness is not only well designed, and compleatly finish'd,
but is perfectly well kept, and the espaliers filPd exactly, at
bottom to the very ground, and are led up to proportioned
heights on the top; so that nothing of that kind can be more
beautiful.

The house itself is every way answerable on the outside to
the beautiful prospect, and the two fronts are the largest, and,
beyond comparison, the finest of the kind in England: The
great stairs go up from the second court of the palace on the
right hand, and lead you to the south prospect.

I hinted in my last that King William brought into England
the love of fine paintings, as well as that of fine gardens; and
you have an example of it in the cartoons, as they are calTd,
being five pieces of such paintings, as, if you will believe men of
nice judgment and great travelling, are not to be match'd in
Europe: The stories are known, but especially two of them,
viz. that of St. Paul preaching on Mars-Hill to the self-wise
Athenians, and that of St. Peter passing sentence of death on
Ananias; I say, these two strike the mind with the^ utmost
surprize; the passions are so drawn to the life, astonishment,
terror and death in the face of Ananias; zeal and a sacred fire
in the eyes of the blessed apostle; fright and surprize upon the
countenances of the beholders in the piece of Ananias; all
these describe themselves so naturally, that you cannot but
seem to discover something of the like passions, even in seeing
them.

In the other, there is the boldness and courage with which
St. Paul undertook to talk to a sett of men, who he knew despis'd
all the world, as thinking themselves able to teach them any
thing: In the audience, there is anticipating pride and conceit
in some, a smile or fleer of contempt in others, but a kind of
sensible conviction, tho' crush'd in its beginning, on the faces
of the rest; and all together appear confounded, but have little
to say, and know nothing at all of it, they gravely put him off to

178 DEFOE'S TOUR

hear him another time; all these are seen here in the very dress
of the face; that is, the very countenances which they hold
while they listen to the new doctrine, which the apostle preached
to a people at that time ignorant of it.

The other of the cartoons are exceeding fine; but I mention
these as the particular two which are most lively, which strike
the fancy the soonest at first view: 'Tis reported, but with what
truth I know not, that the late French king offer'd an hundred
thousand louis d'ors for these pictures; but this, I say, is but
a report: The long brought a great many other fine pieces to
England, and with them the love of fine paintings so universally
spread itself among the nobility and persons of figure all over
the kingdom, that it is incredible what collections have been
made by English gentlemen since that time; and how all Europe
has been rumag'd, as we may say, for pictures to bring over
hither, where, for twenty years, they yielded the purchasers,
such as collected them for sale, immense profit: But the rates
are abated since that, and we begin to be glutted with the
copies and frauds of the Dutch and Flemish painters, who have
imposed grossly upon us. But to return to the palace of Hampton-
Court: Queen Mary liv'd not to see it compleatly finished; and
her death, with the other difficulties of that reign, put a stop
to the works for some time, till the king reviving his good
liking of the place, set them to work again, and it was finish'd,
as we see it: But I have been assurM, that had the peace con-
tinu'd, and the king liv'd to enjoy the continuance of it, his
majesty had resolv'd to have pulTd down all the remains of the
old budding; such as the chapel, and the large court within the
first gate, and to have built up the whole palace after the manner
of those two fronts already done. In these would have been an
entire sett of rooms of state for the receiving, and, if need had
been, lodging, and entertaining any foreign prince, with his
retinue; also offices for all the Secretaries of State, Lords of the
Treasury, and of trade; to have repaired to for the dispatch of
such business, as it might be necessary to have done there upon
the king's longer residence there than ordinary; as also apart-
ments for all the great officers of the houshold; so that had the
house had two great squares added, as was designed, there would
have been no room to spare, or that would not have been very
well filTd: But the king's death put an end to all these things.

Since the death of King William, Hampton-Court seem'd
abandon'd of its patron: They have gotten a kind of proverbial
saying relating to Hampton-Court, viz. That it has been gener-

MIDDLESEX 179

ally chosen by every other prince, since it became a house of
note. King Charles was the first that delighted in it since Queen
Elizabeth's time; as for the reigns before, it was but newly
forfeited to the Crown, and was not made a royal house till
King Charles I. who was not only a prince that delighted in
country retirements, but knew how to make choice of them
by the beauty of their situation, the goodness of the^air, &c.
he took great delight here, and, had he liv'd to enjoy it in peace,
had purpos'd to make it another thing than it was: But we all
know what took him off from that felicity, and all others; and
this house was at last made one of his prisons by his rebellious
subjects.

His son, King Charles II. may well be said to have an aversion
to the place, for the reason just mention'd, namely, the treat-
ment his royal father met with there; and particularly that the
rebel and murtherer of his father, Cromwell, afterwards possess'd
this palace, and revePd here in the blood of the royal party, as
he had done in that of his sovereign; King Charles II. there-
fore chose Windsor, and bestow'd a vast sum in beautifying
the castle there, and which brought it to the perfection we see
it in at this day; some few alterations excepted, done in the
time of King William.

King William, for King James is not to be nam'd as to his
choice of retir'd palaces, his delight running quite another way;
I say, King William fix'd upon Hampton Court; and it was in
his reign that Hampton Court put on new cloaths, and being
dress'd gay and glorious, made the figure we now see it in.

The late queen, taken up for part of her reign in her kind
regards to the prince her spouse, was oblig'd to reside where
her care of his health confin'd her, and in this case kept for
the most part at Kensington, where he died; but her majesty
always discovered her delight to be at Windsor, where she chose
the little house, as 'twas calTd, opposite to the castle, and took
the air in her chaise in the parks and forest, as she saw occasion.

Now Hampton Court, by the like alternative, is come into
request again; and we find his present majesty, who is a good
judge too of the pleasantness and situation of a place of that
kind, has taken Hampton-Court into his favour, and has made
it much his choice for the summer's retreat of the Court, and
where they may best enjoy the diversions of the season: When
Hampton Court will find such another favourable juncture as
in King William's time, when the remainder of her ashes shall
be swept away, and her compleat fabric, as designed by King

i8o DEFOE'S TOUR

William, shall be finish'd, I cannot tell; but if ever that shall be,
I know no palace in Europe, Versailles excepted, which can
come up to her, either for beauty and magnificence, or for
extent of building, and the ornaments attending it.

From Hampton Court I directed my course for a journey into
the south west part of England; and, to take up my beginning
where I concluded my last, I cross'd to Chertsey on the Thames,
a town I mention'd before; from whence crossing the Black
Desert, as I calTd it, of Bagshot-Heath, I directed my course for
Hampshire, or Hampshire, and particularly for Basingstoke;
that is to say, that a little before I pass'd into the great western
road upon the heath, somewhat west of Bagshot, at a village
call'd Blackwater, and enter'd Hampshire, near Hartleroe.

Before we reach Basingstoke, we get rid of that unpleasant
country, which I so often call a desart, and enter into a pleasant
fertile country, enclosed and cultivated like the rest of England;
and passing a village or two, we enter Basingstoke, in the midst
of woods and pastures, rich and fertile, and the country accord-
ingly spread with the houses of the nobility and gentry, as in
other places: On the right hand, a little before we come to the
town, we pass at a small distance the famous fortress, so it
was then, of Basing, being a house belonging then to the Marquis
of Winchester, the great ancestor of the present family of the
Dukes of Bolton.

This house, garrisoned by a resolute band of old soldiers, was
a great curb to the rebels of the Parliament Party, almost thro'
that whole war; till it was, after a vigorous defence, yielded to
the conquerors, by the inevitable fate of things at that time.
The old house is indeed demolish'd; but the successor of the
family, the first Duke of Bolton, has erected a very noble fabrick
in the same place, or near it, which, however, is not equal to the
magnificence which fame gives to the ancient house, whose
strength of building only, besides the out-works, withstood the
battery of cannon in several attacks, and repuls'd the Round-
heads, three or four times, when they attempted to besiege it:
'Tis incredible what booty the garrison of this place pick'd up,
lying, as they did, just on the great western road, where they
intercepted the carriers, plundered the waggons, and suffered
nothing to pass; to the great interruption of the trade of the
city of London.

Basingstoke is a large populous market town, has a good
market for corn, and lately, within a very few years, is fallen
into a manufacture, viz. of making druggets and shalloons,

HAMPSHIRE 181

and such slight goods, which, however, employs a good number
of the poor people, and enables them to get their bread, which
knew not how to get it before.

From hence the great western road goes on to Whitchurch
and Andover, two market towns, and sending members to
Parliament; at the last of which, the Downs, or open country,
begins, which we in general, tho' falsly, call Salisbury-Plain:
But my resolution being to take in my view what I had pass'd by
before; I was obliged to go off to the left hand, to Alresford and
Winchester.

Alresford was a flourishing market town, and remarkable
for this; That tho' it had no great trade, and particularly very
little, if any manufactures, yet there was no collection in the
town for the poor, nor any poor low enough to take alms of
the parish, which is what I do not think can be said of any town
in England besides.

But this happy circumstance, which so distinguished Alresford

from all her neighbours, was brought to an end in the year ,

when, by a sudden and surprizing fire, the whole town, with
both the church and the market-house, was reduc'd to a heap
of rubbish; and, except a few poor hutts at the remotest ends
of the town, not a house left standing: The town is since that
very handsomely rebuilt, and the neighbouring gentlemen con-
tributed largely to the relief of the people, especially, by sending
in timber towards their building; also their Market-house is
handsomely built; but the church not yet, tho' we hear there is
a fund raising likewise for that.

Here is a very large pond, or lake of water, kept up to a
head, by a strong batterd'eau, or dam, which the people tell
us was made by the Romans ; and that it is to this day part of the
great Roman highway, which leads from Winchester to Alton,
and, as 'tis supposed, went on to London, tho' we no where see
any remains of it, except between Winchester and Alton, and
chiefly between this town and Alton.

Near this town, a little north-west, the Duke of Bolton has
another seat, which, tho' not large, is a very handsome beautiful
palace, and the gardens not only very exact, but very finely
situate, the prospect and visto's noble and great, and the whole
very well kept.

From hence, at the end of seven miles over the Downs, we
come to the very ancient city of Winchester; not only the great
church, which is so famous all over Europe, and has been so
much talk'd of, but even the whole city has, at a distance, the

182 DEFOE'S TOUR

face of venerable, and looks ancient a far off; and yet here are
many modern buildings too, and some very handsome; as the
college schools; with the bishop's palace, built by Bishop
Morley, since the late wars; the old palace of the bishop having
been ruin'd by that known church incendiary, Sir William
Waller, and his crew of plunderers; who, if my information
is not wrong, as I believe it is not, destroyed more monuments
of the dead, and defac'd more churches, than all the Round-heads
in England beside.

This church, and the schools, also are accurately described
by several writers, especially by the Monasticon, where their
antiquity and original is fully set forth: The outside of the
church is as plain and course, as if the founders had abhor'd
ornaments, or that William of Wickham had been a Quaker,
or at least a Quietist: There is neither statue, or a nich for a
statue, to be seen on all the outside; no carv'd work, no spires,
towers, pinacles, balustrades, or any thing; but meer walls,
buttresses, windows, and coins, necessary to the support and
order of the building: It has no steeple, but a short tower
cover'd flat, as if the top of it had fallen down, and it had been
cover'd in haste to keep the rain out, till they had time to build
it up again.

But the inside of the church has many very good things in
it, and worth observation; it was for some ages the burying
place of the English Saxon kings; whose reliques, at the repair
of the church, were collected by Bishop Fox, and, being put
together into large wooden chests, lin'd with lead, were again
interr'd at the foot of the great wall in the choir, three on one
side, and three on the other; with an account whose bones are
in each chest, whether the division of the reliques might be
depended upon, has been doubted, but is not thought material,
so that we do but believe they are all there.

The choir of the church appears very magnificent; the roof
is very high, and the Gothick work in the arch'd part is very
fine, tho' very old; the painting in the windows is admirably
good, and easy to be distinguish'd by those that understand those
things: The steps ascending to the choir make a very fine
show, having the statues of King James, and his son "King
Charles, in copper, finely cast; the first on the right hand, and
the other on the left, as you go up to the choir.

The choir is said to be the longest in England; and as the
number of prebendaries, canons, &c. are many, it requir'd
such a length. The ornaments of the choir are the effects of

HAMPSHIRE 183

the bounty of several bishops; the fine altar (the noblest in
England by much) was done by Bishop Morley; the roof, and
the coat of arms of the Saxon and Norman kings, were done
by Bishop Fox; and the fine throne, for the bishop in the choir,
was given by Bishop Mew, in his life-time; and it was well
it was; for if he had order'd it by will, there is reason to believe
it had never been done. That reverend prelate, notwithstanding
he enjoy'd so rich a bishoprick, scarce leaving money enough
behind him, to pay for his coffin.

There are a great many persons of rank bury'd in this church,
besides the Saxon kings, mentioned above; and besides several
of the most eminent bishops of the see: Just under the altar
lyes a son of William the Conqueror, without any monument;
and behind the altar, under a very fine and venerable monument,
lyes the famous Lord Treasurer, Weston, late Earl of Portland,
Lord High Treasurer of England under King Charles I. His
effigy is in copper armour, at full length, with his head rais'd
on three cushions of the same, and is a very magnificent work:
There is also a very fine monument of Cardinal Beaufort, in his
cardinal's robes and hat.

The monument of Sir John Qoberry is extraordinary, but
more, because it puts strangers upon enquiring into his story,
than for any thing wonderful in the figure, it being cut in a
modern dress; the habit gentlemen wore in those times, which,
being now so much out of fashion, appears mean enough: But
this gentleman's story is particular, being the person solely
entrusted with the secret of the Restoration of King Charles li-
as the messenger that pass'd between General Monk on one
hand, and Mr. Montague, and others entrusted by King
Charles II. on the other hand; which he manag'd so faithfully,
as to effect that memorable event, to which England owes the
felicity of all her happy days since that time; by which faithful
service, Sir John Cloberry, then a private musqueteer only,
rais'd himself to the honour of a knight, with the reward of a
good estate from the bounty of the king.

Every body that goes into this church, and reads what is to
be read there, will be told, that the body of the church was
built by the famous William of Wickham; whose monument,
intimating his fame, lyes in the middle of that part, which was
built at his expence.

He was a courtier before a bishop; and tho* he had no great
share of learning, he was a great promoter of it, and a lover of
learned men: His natural genius was much beyond his acquired

184 DEFOE'S TOUR

parts, and his skill in politicks beyond his ecclesiastick know-
ledge: He is said to have put his master, King Edward III. to
whom he was Secretary of State, upon the two great projects
which made his reign so glorious, viz. First, upon setting up
his claim to the crown of France, and pushing that claim by
force of arms, which brought on the war with France, in which
that prince was three times victorious in battle. (2.) Upon
setting up, or instituting the Order of the Garter; in which he
(being before that made Bishop of Winchester) obtained the
honour for the Bishops of Winchester, of being always prelates
of the Order, as an appendix to the bishoprick; and he himself
was the first prelate of the Order, and the ensigns of that honour
are joyn'd with his episcopal ornaments, in the robing of his
effigy on the monument above.

To the honour of this bishop, there are other foundations
of his, as much to his fame as that of this church, of which
I shall speak in their order; but particularly the college in this
city, which is a noble foundation indeed: The building consists
of two large courts, in which are the lodgings for the masters
and scholars, and in the center a very noble chapel; beyond
that, in the second court, are the schools, with a large cloyster
beyond them, and some enclosures laid open for the diversion
of the scholars. There also is a great hall, where the scholars
dine: The funds for the support of this college are very con-
siderable; the masters live in a very good figure, and their
maintenance is sufficient to support it: They have all seperate
dwellings in the house, and all possible conveniences appointed
them.

The scholars have exhibitions at a certain time of continuance
here, if they please to study, in the new college at Oxford, built
by the same noble benefactor, of which I shall speak in its order.

The clergy here live at large, and very handsomely, in the
close belonging to the cathedral; where, besides the bishop's
palace, mentioned above, are very good houses, and very
handsomely built, for the prebendaries, canons, and other
dignitaries of this church: The deanary is a very pleasant
dwelling, the gardens very large, and the river running thro'
them; but the floods in winter sometimes incommode the
gardens very much.

This school has fully answer'd the end of the founder, who,
tho' he was no great scholar, resolv'd to erect a house for the
making the ages to come more learned than those that went
before; and it had, I say, fully answer'd the end, for many

HAMPSHIRE 185

learned and great men have been rais'd here, some of whom we
shall have occasion to mention as we go on.

Among the many private inscriptions in this church, we
found one made by Dr. Over, once an eminent physician in this
city, on a mother and child, who, being his patients, died
together, and were bury'd in the same grave, and which intimate,
that one died of a fever, and the other of a dropsy.

Surrepuit natum f ebris matrem Absttilit Hydrops,
Igne Prior fatis, altera Cessit Aqua.

As the city it self stands in a vale on the bank, and at the
conjunction of two small rivers, so the country rising every
way, but just as the course of the water keeps the valley open,
you must necessarily, as you go out of the gates, go up hill
every way: But when once ascended, you come to the most
charming plains, and most pleasant country of that kind in
England; which continues, with very small intersections of
rivers and valleys, for above fifty miles, as shall appear in the
sequel of this journey.

At the west gate of this city was anciently a castle, known
to be so by the ruins, more than by any extraordinary notice
taken of it in history: What they say of it, that the Saxon kings
kept their Court here, is doubtful, and must be meant of the
West Saxons only; and as to the tale of King Arthur's round
table, which, they pretend, was kept here for him, and his two
dozen of knights; which table hangs up still, as a piece of
antiquity, to the tune of 1200 years, and has, as they pretend,
the names of the said knights hi Saxon characters, and yet such
as no man can read: All this story I see so little ground to give
the least credit to, that I look upon it, and 't shall please you,
to be no better than a FIBB,

Where this castle stood, or whatever else it was, for some say
there was no castle there, the late King Charles II. mark'd out,
a very noble design; which had he liv'd, would certainly have
made that part of the country, the New-Market of the ages to
come; for the country hereabout far excels that of New-Market
Heath, for all kinds of sport and diversion, fit for a prince, no
body can dispute; and as the design included a noble palace,
sufficient like Windsor, for a summer residence of the whole
Court, it would certainly have diverted the king from his
cursory journeys to New-Market. ^

The plan of this house has received several alterations; and
as it is never like to be finished, 'tis scarce worth recording the

186 DEFOE'S TOUR

variety: The building is begun, and the front next the city
carry'd up to the roof, and cover'd; but the remainder is not
begun: There was a street of houses design'd from the gate of
the palace down to the town, but it was never begun to be
built; the park mark'd out was exceeding large, near ten miles
in circumference, and ended west upon the open downs, in
view of the town of Stockbridge.

This house was afterwards settled with a royal revenue also,
as an appenage, established by Parliament upon Prince George
of Denmark for his life, in case he had out-hVd the queen: But
his royal highness dying before her majesty, all hope of seeing
this design perfected, or the house finish'd, is now vanish'd.

I cannot omit that there are several publick edifices in this
city, and in the neighbourhood; as the hospitals, and the
building adjoining near the east gate; and towards the north,
a piece of an old monastry undemoHsh'd, and which is still
preserved to the religion, being the residence of some private
Roman Catholick gentlemen, where they have an oratory, and,
as they say, live still according to the rules of St. Benedict. This
building is calTd Hide-House; and, as they live very usefully
and, to the highest degree, obliging among their neighbours,
they meet with no obstruction or disturbance from any body.

Winchester is a place of no trade, other than is naturally
occasioned by the inhabitants of the city and neighbouring
villages, one with another: Here is no manufacture, no navi-
gation; there was indeed an attempt to make the river navigable
from Southampton; and it was once made practicable, but it
never answer'd the expence, so as to give encouragement to the
undertakers.

Here is a great deal of good company; and abundance of gentry
being in the neighbourhood, it adds to the sociableness of the
place: The clergy also here are, generally speaking, very rich,
and very numerous.

As there is such good company, so they are gotten into that
new-fashion'd way of conversing by assemblies: I shall do no
more than mention them here; they are pleasant and agreeable
to the young people, and some times fatal to them, of which,
in its place; Winchester has its share of the mirth: May it escape
the ill consequences.

The hospital on the south of this city, at a miles distance on
the road to Southampton, is worth notice: Tis said to be founded
by King William Rufus, but was not endow'd or appointed till
later times by Cardinal Beaufort. Every traveller that knocks

HAMPSHIRE 187

at the door of this house, in his way, and asks for it, claims the
relief of a piece of white bread and a cup of beer; and this
donation is still continued; a quantity of good beer is set apart
every day to be given away; and what is left, is distributed to
other poor, but none of it kept to the next day.

How the revenues of this hospital, which should maintain
the master and thirty private gentlemen, who they call Fellows,
but ought to call Brothers, is now reduc'd to maintain only
fourteen, while the master lives in a figure equal to the best
gentleman in the country, would be well worth the enquiry
of a proper visitor, if such can be nam'd : Tis a thing worthy
of complaint, when publick charaties, designed for the relief
of the poor, are embezzel'd and depredated by the rich, and
turn'd to the support of luxury and pride.

From Winchester, is about 25 miles, and over the most
charming plains that can any where be seen, (far in my opinion)
excelling the plains of Mecca, we come to Salisbury; the vast
flocks of sheep, which one every where sees upon these downs,
and the great number of those flocks, is a sight truly worth
observation; 'tis ordinary for these flocks to contain from 3 to
5000 in a flock; and several private farmers hereabouts have
two or three such flocks.

But 'tis more remarkable still; how a great part of these
downs comes by a new method of husbandry, to be not only
made arable, which they never were in former days, but to
bear excellent wheat, and great crops too, tho* otherwise poor
barren land, and never known to our ancestors to be capable
of any such thing; nay, they would perhaps have laugh'd at any
one that would have gone about to plough up the wild downs
and hills, where the sheep were wont to go: But experience
has made the present age wiser, and more skilful in husbandry;
for by only folding the sheep upon the plow'd lands, those
lands, which otherwise are barren, and where the plow goes
within three or four inches of the solid rock of chalk, are made
fruitful, and bear very good wheat, as well as rye and barley:
I shall say more of this when I come to speak of the same practice
farther in the country.

This plain country continues in length from Winchester to
Salisbury 25 miles, from thence to Dorchester 22 miles, thence
to Weymouth 6 miles, so that they lye near 50 miles in length,
and breadth; they reach also in some places 35 to 40 miles:
They who would make any practicable guess at the number of
sheep usually fed on these downs, may take it from a calculation

188 DEFOE'S TOUR

made, as I was told, at Dorchester, that there were 600000 sheep
fed within 6 miles of that town, measuring every way round,
and the town in the center.

As we pass'd this plain country, we saw a great many old
camps, as well Roman as British, and several remains of the
ancient inhabitants of this kingdom, and of their wars, battles,
entrenchments, encampments, buildings, and other fortifica-
tions, which are indeed very agreeable to a traveller, that has
read any thing of the history of the country. Old Sarum is as
remarkable as any of these, where there is a double entrench-
ment, with a deep graffe, or ditch, to either of them; the area
about 100 yards in diameter, taking in the whole crown of the
hill, and thereby rendering lie ascent very difficult: Near this,
there is one farm house, which is all the remains I could see
of any town in or near the place, for the encampment has no
resemblance of a town; and yet this is calTd the borough of
Old Sarum, and sends two members to Parliament, who, those
members can justly say, they represent, would be hard for them
to answer.

Some will have it, that the old city of Sorbiodunum, or
Salisbury, stood here, and was afterwards, for I know not
what reasons, removed to the low marshy grounds, among
the rivers, where it now stands: But as I see no authority for
it, other than mere tradition, I believe my share of it, and
take it ad referendum.

Salisbury itself is indeed a large and pleasant city; tho' I do
not think it at all the pleasanter for that which they boast so
much of; namely, the water running thro' the middle of every
street, or that it adds any thing to the beauty of the place, but
just the contrary; it keeps the streets always dirty, full of wet
and filth, and weeds, even in the middle of summer.

The city is plac'd upon the confluence of two large rivers,
the Avon and the Willy, either of them considerable rivers, but
very large, when joyn'd together, and yet larger when they
receive a third river, viz. the Naddir, which joyns them near
Clarendon Park, about three miles below the city; then, with
a deep channel, and a current less rapid, they run down to
Christ Church, which is then* port, and where they empty
themselves into the sea; from that town upwards, towards
Salisbury, they are made navigable too within two miles, and
might be so quite into the city, were it not for the strength of
the stream.

As the city of Winchester is a city without trade, that is to

WILTSHIRE 189

say, without any particular manufactures; so this city of
Salisbury, and all the county of Wilts, of which it is the capital,
are full of a great variety of manufactures; and those some of
the most considerable in England; namely, the cloathing trade,
and the trade of flannels, drugets, and several other sorts of
manufactures, of which in their order.

The city of Salisbury has two remarkable manufactures
carried on in it, and which employ the poor of great part of the
country round; namely, fine flannels, and long cloths for the
Turkey trade, call'd Salisbury Whites: The people of Salisbury
are gay and rich, and have a flourishing trade; and there is a
great deal of good manners and good company among them;
I mean, among the citizens, besides what is found among the
gentlemen; for there are many good families in Salisbury,
besides the citizens.

This society has a great addition from the Gloss, that is to
say, the circle ^of ground wall'd in adjacent to the cathedral; in
which the families of the prebendaries and commons, and others
of the clergy belonging to the cathedral have their houses, as
is usual in all cities where there are cathedral churches. These
are so considerable here, and the place so large, that it is (as it
is calTd in general) like another city.

The cathedral is famous for the height of its spire, which is
without exception the highest, and the handsomest in England,
being from the ground 410 foot, and yet the walls so exceeding
thin, that at the upper part of the spire upon a view made by
the late Christopher Wren, the wall was found to be less than
five inches thick; upon which a consultation was had, whether
the spire, or at least the upper part of it should be taken down,
it being suppos'd to have receiv'd some damage by the great
storm in the year 1703; but it was resolv'd in the negative, and
Sir Christopher order'd it to be so strengthen'd with bands of
iron plates, as has effectually secured it; and I have heard some
of the best architects say, it is stronger now than when it was
first built.

They tell us here long stories of the great art us'd in laying
the first foundations of this church; the ground being marshy
and wet, occasion'd by the channels of the rivers; that it was
laid upon piles according to some, and upon woolpacks according
to others; but this is not suppos'd by those who know, that the
whole country is one rock of chalk, even from the tops of the
highest hills, to the bottom of the deepest rivers.

They tell us, this church was 40 years a building, and cost

igo DEFOE'S TOUR

an immense sum of money, but it must be acknowledged that
the inside of the work is not answerable in the decoration of
things, to the workmanship without; the painting in the choir
is mean, and more like the ordinary method of common drawing
room, or tavern painting, than that of a church; the carving
is good, but very little of it, and it is rather a fine church than
finely set off.

The ordinary boast of this building, that there were as many
gates as months, as many windows as days, as many marble
pillars as hours in the year, is now no recommendation at all.
However the mention of it must be preserved.

As many days as in one year there be,
So many windows in one church we see;
As many marble pillars there appear,
As there are hours throughout the fleeting year;
As many gates as moons one year do view:
Strange tale to tell, yet not more strange than true.

There are however some very fine monuments in this church;
particularly one belonging to the noble family of Seymours,
since Dukes of Somerset, (and ancestors of the present flourishing
family,) which on a most melancholly occasion has been now
lately open'd again to receive the body of the late Dutchess of
Somerset, the happy consort for almost 40 years of his grace
the present duke; and only daughter and heiress of the antient
and noble family of Piercy, Earls of Northumberland, whose
great estate she brought into the family of Somerset, who now
enjoy it.

With her was bury'd at the same time her graces daughter
the Marchioness of Caermarthen, being married to the Marquess
of Caermarthen, son and heir apparent to the Lord of Leeds,
who dy'd for grief at the loss of the dutchess her mother, and
was buried with her; also her second son the Duke Piercy
Somerset, who dyed a few months before, and had been buryed
in the abby-church of Westminster, but was ordered to be
remov'd and laid here with the ancestors of his house; and I hear
his grace designs to have a yet more magnificent monument
erected in this cathedral for them, just by the other, which is
there already.

How the Dukes of Somerset came to quit this church for
their burying-place, and be laid in Westminster-Abbey, that
I know not; but 'tis certain that the present duke has chosen to
have his family laid here with their ancestors, and to that end
has caused the corps of his son the Lord Piercy, as above, and

WILTSHIRE 191

one of his daughters who had been buryed in the Abbey, to be
removed and brought down to this vault, which lyes in that they
call the Virgin Mary's Chappel behind the altar. There is, as
above, a noble monument for a late Duke and Dutchess of
Somerset in the place already; with their pourtraits at full
length, then- heads lying upon cushions, the whole perfectly
well wrought in fine polish'd Italian marble, and their sons
kneeling by them; those I suppose to be the father of the great
Duke of Somerset, uncle to King Edward IV, but after this the
family lay in Westminster-Abbey, where there is also a fine
monument for that very duke who was beheaded by Edward VI,
and who was the great patron of the Reformation.

Among other monuments of noble men in this cathedral
they show you one that is very extraordinary, and to which
there hangs a tale: There was in the reign of Philip and Mary
a very unhappy murther committed by the then Lord Sturton,
or Stourton, a family since extinct, but well known till within
a few years in that country.

This Lord Stourton being guilty of the said murther, which
also was aggravated with very bad circumstances, could not
obtain the usual grace of the Crown, (viz.) to be beheaded, but
Queen Mary positively ordered that like a common malefactor
he should die at the gallows: After he was hang'd, his friends
desiring to have him bury'd at Salisbury, the bishop would not
consent that he should be buryed in the cathedral, unless as
a farther mark of infamy, his friends would submit to this
condition (viz.) That the silken halter in which he was hang'd
should be hanged up over his grave in the church, as a monu-
ment of his crime; which was accordingly done, and there it
is to be seen to this day.

The putting this halter up here, was not so wonderful to me
as it was, that the posterity of that lord, who remain'd in good
rank sometime after, should never prevail to have that mark of
infamy taken off from the memory of their ancestor.

There are several other monuments in this cathedral, as
particularly of two noblemen of antient families in Scotland,
one of the name of Hay, and one of the name of Gordon; but
they give us nothing of their history, so that we must be content
to say there they lye, and that's alL

The cloyster, and the chapter-house adjoyning to the church,
are the finest here of any I have seen in England; the latter is
octogon, or eight square, and is 150 foot in its circumference;
the roof bearing all upon one small marble pillar in the center,

192 DEFOE'S TOUR

which you may shake with your hands; and it is hardly to be
imagin'd it can be any great support to the roof , which makes
it the more curious, it is not indeed to be match'd I believe
in Europe.

From hence directing my course to the sea-side in pursuit
of my first design, viz. of viewing the whole coast of England,
I left the great road, and went down the east side of the river
towards New-Forest, and Lymington; and here I saw the antient
house and seat of Clarendon, the mansion of the antient family
of Hide, ancestors of the great Earl of Clarendon, and from
whence his lordship was honour'd with that title, or the house
erected into an honour in favour of his family.

But this being a large county, and full of memorable branches
of antiquity, and modern curiosity, I cannot quit my observa-
tions so soon, but being happily fix'd by the favour of a particular
friend at so beautiful a spot of ground as this of Clarendon
Park, I made several little excursions from hence to view the
northern parts of this county; a county so fruitful of wonders,
that tho' I do not make antiquity my chief search, yet I must
not pass it over entirely, where so much of it, and so well worth
observation is to be found, which would look as if I either
understood not the value of the study, or expected my readers
should be satisfy'd with a total omission of it.

I have mention'd that this county is generally a vast continu'd
body of high chalky hills, whose tops spread themselves into
fruitful and pleasant downs and plains, upon which great
flocks of sheep are fed, &c. But the reader is desir'd to observe
these hills and plains are most beautifully intersected, and cut
thro' by the course of divers pleasant and profitable rivers; in
the course, and near the banks, of which there always is a chain
of fruitful meadows, and rich pastures, and those interspers'd
with innumerable pleasant towns, villages, and houses, and
among them many of considerable magnitude; so that while
you view the downs, and think the country wild and uninhabited ;
yet when you come to descend into these vales you are surpris'd
with the most pleasant and fertile country in England.

There are no less than four of these rivers which meet all
together, at, or near the city of Salisbury, especially the waters
of three of them run thro' the streets of the city; the Nadder
and the Willy, and the Avon, and the course of these three lead
us thro' the whole mountainous part of the county, the two
first joyn their waters at Wilton; the shire-town, tho' a place
of no great notice now; and these are the waters which run

WILTSHIRE 193

thro* the canal, and the gardens of Wilton House, the seat of
that ornament of nobility and learning, the Earl of Pembroke.

One cannot be said to have seen any thing that a man of
curiosity would think worth seeing in this county, and not have
been at Wilton House; but not the beautiful building, not the
antient trophy of a great family, not the noble scituation, not
all the pleasures of the gardens, parks, fountains, hare-warren,
or of whatever is rare either in art or nature are equal to, that
yet more glorious sight, of a noble princely palace, constantly
filled with its noble and proper inhabitants; viz. the lord and
proprietor, who is indeed a true patriarchal monarch, reigns
here with ^ an authority agreeable to all his subjects (family);
and his reign is made agreeable, by his first practising the most
exquisite government of himself, and then guiding all under
him by the rules of honour and vertue; being also himself
perfectly master of all the needful arts of family government;
I mean needful to make that government, both easy, and plea-
sant to those who are under it, and who therefore willingly,
and by choice conform to it.

Here an exhaulted genius is the instructor, a glorious example
the guide, and a gentle well directed hand the governour and
law-giver to the whole; and the family like a well govern'd
city appears happy, flourishing and regular, groaning under
no grievance, pleas'd with what they enjoy, and enjoying every
thing which they ought to be pleas'd with.

Nor is the blessing of this noble resident extended to the
family only, but even to all the country round, who in their
degree feel the effects of the general beneficence; and where the
neighbourhood, however poor, receive all the good they can
expect, and are sure to have no injury, or oppression.

The canal before the house lyes parallel with the road, and
receives into it the whole river Willey, or at least is able to do
so; it may indeed be said, that the river is made into a canal;
when we come into the court-yards before the house there are
several peices of antiquity to entertain the curious; as par-
ticularly, a noble column of porphyry, with a marble statue
of Venus on the top of it. In Italy, and especially at Rome and
Naples, we see a great variety of fine columns, and some of
them of excellent workmanship, and antiquity, and at some of
the Courts of the Princes of Italy the like is seen; as especially at
the Court of Florence; but in England I do not remember to have
seen any thing like this, which as they told me is two and thirty
foot high and of excellent workmanship, and that it came last

I 9 4 DEFOE'S TOUR

from Candia, but formerly from Alexandria; what may belong
to the history of it any further, I suppose is not known, at least
they could tell me no more of it, who shew'd it me.

On the left of the court was formerly a large grotto, and
curious water-works, and in a house, or shed, or part of the
building which open'd with two folding doors, like a coach-
house, a large equestrian statue of one of the ancestors of the
family in compleat armour, as also another of a Roman emperor
in brass, but the last time I had the curiosity to see this house,
I mist that part; so that I supposed they were remov'd.

As the present Earl of Pembroke, the lord of this fine palace,
is a nobleman of great personal merit, many other ways; so he
is a man of learning, and reading, beyond most men of his
lordship's high rank in this nation, if not in the world; and
as his reading has made him a master of antiquity, and judge
of such peices of antiquity, as he has had opportunity to meet
with in his own travels, and otherwise in the world; so it has
given him a love of the study, and made him a collector of
valuable things, as well in painting as in sculpture, and other
excellencies of art, as also of nature; in so much that Wilton-
House is now a meer musseum, or a chamber of rarities, and
we meet with several things there, which are to be found no
where else in the world.

As his lordship is a great collector of fine paintings; so I know
no nobleman's house in England, so prepaid, as if built on
purpose to receive them; the largest, and the finest peices that
can be imagin'd extant in the world, might have found a place
here capable to receive them; I say, they might have found, as
if they could not now, which is in part true; for at present the
whole house is so compleatly filTd, that I see no room for any
new peice to crowd in, without displacing some other fine peice
that hung there before; as for the value of the peice, that might
so offer to succeed the displac'd, that the great judge of the whole
collection, the earl himself, must determine, and as his judgment
is perfectly good, the best picture would be sure to possess the
place. In a word: Here is without doubt the best, if not the
greatest collection of rarities, and paintings, that are to be
seen together, in any one nobleman's, or gentleman's house in
England. The peice of our Saviour washing his disciples feet,
which they shew you in one of the first rooms you go into, must
be spoken of by every body that has any knowledge of painting,
and is an admirable peice indeed.

You ascend the great stair case, at the upper end of the

WILTSHIRE 195

hall, which is very large; at the foot of the stair-case you have
a Bacchus large as the life, done in fine Peloponesian marble;
carrying a young Bacchus on his arm, the young one eating
grapes, and letting you see by his countenance, that he is
pleas'd with the tast of them; nothing can be done finer, or
more lively represent the thing intended; namely the gust of
the appetite, which if it be not a passion, 'tis an affection,
which is as much seen in the countenance, perhaps more than
any other: One ought to stop every two steps of this stair-case,
as we go up, to contemplate the vast variety of pictures, that
cover the walls, and of some of the best masters in Europe, and
yet this is but an introduction to what is beyond them.

When you are entered the appartments, such variety seizes
you every way, that you scarce know to which hand to turn
your self: First, on one side you see several rooms filTd with
paintings, as before, all so curious, and the variety such, that 'tis
with reluctance, that you can turn from them; while looking
another way, you are calTd off by a vast collection of busto's,
and peices of the greatest antiquity of the kind, both Greek,
and Romans; among these, there is one of the Roman emperor,
Marcus Aurelius in basso relievo, I never saw any thing like
what appears here, except in the chamber of rarieties at Munick
in Bavaria.

Passing these, you come into several large rooms, as if con-
trivM for the reception of the beautiful guests that take them
up; one of these is near 70 foot long and the ceiling 26 foot
high, with another adjoyning of the same height, and breadth,
but not so long: Those together might be call'd the Great
Gallery of Wilton, and might vie for paintings with the gallery
of Luxemburg in the Fauxbourg of Paris.

These two rooms are filTd with the family peices of the house
of Herbert, most of them by Lilly, or Vandyke, and one in
particularly, out does all that ever I met with, either at home, or
abroad, 'tis done, as was the mode of painting at that time,
after the manner of a family peice of King Charles I. with his
queen, and children, which before the burning of White-Hall,
I remember to hang at the east end of the Long Gallery in the
palace.

This peice fills the farther end of the great room which
I just now mention'd, it contains the Earl of Montgomery,
ancestor of the house of Herbert, not then Earls of Pembroke,
and his lady, sitting, and as big as the life; there are about
them, their own five sons, and one daughter, and their daughter-

196 DEFOE'S TOUR

in-law, who was daughter of the Duke of Buckingham, marry'd
to the elder Lord Herbert, their eldest son; it is enough to say
of this peice, 'tis worth the labour of any lover of art to go 500
miles to see it; and I am inform' d several gentlemen of quality
have come from France almost on purpose; It would be endless
to describe the whole set of the family pictures, which take up
this room, unless we would enter into the roof-tree of the family ;
and set down a genealogical line of the whole house.

After we have seen this fine range of beauties, for such
indeed they are; far from being at an end of your surprize, you
have three or four rooms still upon the same floor, fiU'd with
wonders, as before: Nothing can be finer than the pictures
themselves, nothing more surprising than the number of them;
at length you descend the back-stairs, which are in themselves
large, tho* not like the other: However, not a hands breadth is
left to crowd a picture in of the smallest size, and even the upper
rooms, which might be call'd garrets, are not naked, but have
some very good peices in them.

Upon the whole, the genius of the noble collector may be
seen in this glorious collection, than which, take them together,
there is not a finer in any private hand in Europe, and in no
hand at all in Britain, private or publick.

The gardens are on the south of the house, and extend them-
selves beyond the river, a branch of which runs thro* one part
of them, and still south of the gardens in the great park, which
extending beyond the vale, mounts the hill opening at the last
to the great down, which is properly call'd by way of distinction,
Salisbury-Plain, and leads from the city of Salisbury, to Shaftes-
bury; here also his lordship has a hare-warren (as 'tis call'd)
tho' improperly; it has indeed been a sanctuary for the hares
for many years; but the gentlemen complain that it marrs
their game, for that as soon as they put up a hare for their
sport, if it be any where within two or three miles, away she
runs for the warren, and there is an end of their pursuits; on
the other hand, it makes all the countrymen turn poachers,
and destroy the hares, by what means they can; but this is a
smaller matter, and of no great import one way or other.

From this pleasant and agreeable days work, I returned to
Clarendon, and the next day took another short tour to the
hills, to see that celebrated peice of antiquity, the wonderful
Stone-Henge, being six miles from Salisbury north, and upon
the side of the river Avon, near the town of Amesbury: Tis
needless, that I should enter here into any part of the dispute

WILTSHIRE 197

about which our learned antiquaries have so puzzPd themselves,
that several books, and one of them, in folio, has been published
about it; some alledging it to be a heathen, or pagan temple, and
altar, or place of sacrifice, as Mr. Jones; others, a monument,
or trophy of victory; others a monument for the dead, as
Mr. Aubury, and the like: Again, some will have it be British,
some Danish, some Saxon, some Roman, and some before them
all, Phenician.

I shall suppose it, as the majority of all writers do, to be
a monument for the dead, and the rather, because men's bones
have been frequently dug up in the ground near them. The
common opinion that no man could ever count them, that a
baker carry'd a basket of bread, and laid a loaf upon every
stone, and yet could never make out the same number twice;
This, I take, as a meer country fiction, and a ridiculous one too;
the reason why they cannot easily be told, is, that many of them
lye half, or part buryed in the ground, and a peice here, and
a peice there, only appearing above the grass, it cannot be known
easily, which belong to one stone, and which to another, or
which are separate stones, and which are joyned under ground
to one another; otherwise, as to those which appear, they are
easie to be told, and I have seen them told four times after one
another, beginning every time at a different place, and every
time they amounted to 72 in all; but then this was counting
every peice of a stone of bulk, which appear'd at above the
surface of the earth, and was not evidently part of, and adjoyn-
ing to another, to be a distinct and separate body, or stone
by it self.

The form of this monument is not only described but delineated
in most authors, and indeed 'tis hard to know the first, but by
the last; the figure was at first circular, and there were at least
four rows or circles, within one another; the main stones were
placed upright, and they were joyn'd on the top by cross stones,
laid from one to another, and fastn'd with vast mortices and
tenants: Length of time has so decay 'd them, that not only
most of the cross stones which lay on the top are fallen down,
but many of the upright also, notwithstanding the weight of
them is so prodigious great: How they came thither, or from
whence, no stones of that kind being now to be found in any
part of England near it, is still the mistery, for they are of
such immense bulk that no engines, or carriages which we have
in use in this age could stir them.

Doubtless they had some method in former days in foreign

198 DEFOE'S TOUR

countries, as well as here, to move heavier weights than we
find practicable now; How else did Solomons workmen build the
battlement, or additional wall to support the precipeice of
Mount Moriah, on which the temple was built? which was all
built of great stones of Parian marble, each stone being forty
cubits long, and fourteen cubits broad, and eight cubits high,
or thick, which reckoning each cubit at two foot and half of
our measure, as the learned agree to do, was 100 foot long,
35 foot broad, and 20 foot thick.

These stones at Stonehenge, as Mr. Cambden describes them,
and in which others agree, were very large, tho' not so large,
the upright stones 24 foot high, 7 foot broad, 16 foot round;
and weight 12 ton each; and the cross stones on the top, which
he calls coronets, were 6 or 7 ton, but this does not seem equal,
for if the cross stones weigh'd six, or seven ton, the others, as
they appear now, were at least 5 or 6 times as big, and must
weigh in proportion; and therefore, I must think their judgment
much nearer the case who judge the upright stones at 16 ton,
or thereabouts, supposing them to stand a great way into the
earth, as 'tis not doubted but they do; and the coronets, or cross
stones, at about two ton, which is very large too, and as much
as their bulk can be thought to allow.

Upon the whole, we must take them as our ancestors have
done; Namely, for an erection, or building so antient, that no
history has handed down to us the original, as we find it then
uncertain, we must leave it so: Tis indeed a reverend peice of
antiquity, and 'tis a great loss that the true history of it is not
known; But since it is not, I think the making so many con-
jectures at the reality, when they know they can but guess at
it, and above all the insisting so long, and warmly on their
private opinions, is but amusing themselves and us with a
doubt, which perhaps lyes the deeper for their search into it.

The downs and plains in this part of England being so open,
and the surface so little subject to alteration, there are more
remains of antiquity to be seen upon them, than in other places;
for example, I think they tell us there are three and fifty antient
encampments, or fortifications to be seen in this one county,
some whereof are exceeding plain to be seen, some of one form,
some of another; some of one nation, some of another, British,
Danish, Saxon, Roman, as at Ebb-down, Burywood, Oldburgh-
Hill, Cummerford, Roundway-Down, St. Ann's-Hill, Bratton-
Castle, Clay-Hill, Stournton-Park, Whitecole-Hill, Battlebury,
Scrathbury, Yanesbury, Frippsbury, Suthbury-Hill, Amesbury,

WILTSHIRE 199

Great Bodwyn, Easterley, Merdon, Aubery, Martenscil-Hill,
Barbury-Castle, and many more.

Also the Barrows, as we all agree to call them, are very many
in number in this county, and very obvious, having sufifer'd very
little decay. These are large hillocks of earth cast up, as the
antients agree, by the soldiers over the bodies of their dead
comrades slain in battle; several hundreds of these are to be
seen, especially in the north part of this county, about Marlbro'
and the downs, from thence to St. Ann's-Hill, and even every
way, the downs are full of them.

I have done with matters of antiquity for this county, unless
you will admit me to mention the famous parliament in the
reign of Hen. II. held at Clarendon, where I am now writing,
and another intended to be held there in Rich, ad's time,
but prevented by the barons, being then up in arms against
the king.

Near this place at Farlo was the birth-place of the late Sir
Stephen Fox, and where the town sharing in his good fortune,
shews several marks of his bounty, as particularly, the building
a new church from the foundation, and getting an Act of
Parliament past, for making it parochial, it being but a chappel
of ease before to an adjoyning parish: Also Sir Stephen built
and endow'd an alms-house here for six poor women, with a
master and a free-school; the master is to be a clergyman, and
to officiate in the church, that is to say, is to have the living,
which including the school is very sufficient.

I am now to pursue my first design, and shall take the west
part of Wiltshire in my return, where are several things still
to be taken notice of, and some very well worth our stay. In
the mean time I went on to Langbro 3 a fine seat of my Lord
Colerain, which is very well kept, tho' the family it seems is
not much in this country, having another estate, and dwelling
at Tottenham-High-Cross near London.

From hence in my way to the sea-side I came to New-Forest,
of which I have said something already with relation to the
great extent of ground, which lyes wast, and in which there is
so great a quantity of large timber, as I have spoken of already.

This wast and wild part of the country was, as some record,
lay'd open, and wast for a forest, and for game, by that violent
tyrant William the Conqueror, and for which purpose he un-
peopled the country, pulTd down the houses, and which was
worse, the churches of several parishes or towns, and of
abundance of villages, turning the poor people out of their

200 DEFOE'S TOUR

habitations, and possessions, and laying all open for his deer:
The same histories likewise record that two of his own blood
and posterity, and particularly his immediate successor William
Rufus lost their lives in this forest: One (viz.) the said William
Rufus being shot with an arrow directed at a deer, which the
king, and his company were hunting, and the arrow glancing
on a tree, chang'd his course and struck the king full on the
breast, and kill'd him; This they relate as a just judgment of
God on the cruel devastation made here by the Conqueror; Be
it so or not, as heaven pleases; but that the king was so kilPd,
is certain, and they show the tree, on which the arrow glanc'd,
to this day; in King Charles II. time, it was ordered to be
surrounded with a pale, but as great part of the paleing is down
with age; whether the tree be really so old, or not, is to me a
great question; the action being near 700 year ago.

I cannot omit to mention here a proposal made a few years
ago to the late Lord Treasurer, Godolphin, for re-peopling this
forest, which for some reasons I can be more particular in, than
any man now left alive, because I had the honour to draw up
the scheme, and argue it before that noble lord, and some others
who were principally concem'd at that time in bringing over,
or rather providing for when they were come over, the poor
inhabitants of the Palatinate; a thing in it self commendable,
but as it was manag'd, made scandalous to England, and
miserable to those poor people.

^ Some persons being ordered by that noble lord, above men-
tion'd, to consider of measures, how the said poor people should
be provided for, and whether they could be provided for, or
no, without injury to the publick: The answer was grounded
upon this maxim, that the number of inhabitants is the wealth
and strength of a kingdom, provided those inhabitants were
such, as by honest industry applied themselves to live by their
labour, to whatsoever trades, or employments they were brought
up: In the next place it was inquir'd, what employments those
poor people were brought up to? It was answer' d, there were
husbandmen, and artificers of all sorts, upon which the proposal
was as follows.

NEW FOREST in Hampshire was singl'd out to
be the place.

Here it was proposed to draw a great square-line, containing
four thousand acres of land, marking out two large highways,
or roads thro' the center, crossing both ways, so that there

HAMPSHIRE

201

should be a thousand acres in each division, exclusive of the
land contain'd in the said cross roads.

Then it was proposed to single out twenty men, and then-
families, who should be recommended as honest industrious
men, expert in, or at least capable of being instructed in hus-
bandry, curing and cultivating of land, breeding and feeding
cattle, and the like; To each of these should be parcelled out in
equal distributions, two hundred acres of this land, so that
the whole four thousand acres should be fully distributed to
the said twenty families, for which they should have no rent
to pay, and be liable to no taxes, but such as provided for their
own sick or poor, repairing their own roads, and the like: This
exemption from rent and taxes, to continue for twenty years,
and then to pay each 5oZ. a year to the queen; that is to say, to
the Crown.

The form of the several farms would be laid out thus.

H H

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H'

CD

en.

CD

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a

Liyi!

[a

CD

CD

CD

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El dLI3ll(o)l}ZI3b EJ ||

CD

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ri

a the church, b the shambles, c the market house, d a town hall,
e a conduit with stocks, &c. F the conduits, or wells, G houses,
H the lands enclosed behind, J streets of houses for tradesmen.

To each of these families, who I wou'd now call farmers,
it was propos'd to advance 2ooZ. in ready money, as a stock to
set them to work, to furnish them with cattle, horses, cows,

202 DEFOE'S TOUR

hogs, &c. and to hire and pay labourers, to enclose, clear, and
cure the land; which it would be supposed the first year would
not be so much to their advantage as afterwards; allowing
them timber out of the forest to build themselves houses, and
bams, sheds, and offices, as they should have occasion; also
for carts, waggons, ploughs, harrows, and the like necessary
things, care to be token, that the men and their families went
to work forthwith according to the design.

Thus twenty families would be immediately supplyed, and
provided for, for there would be no^ doubt, but these families
with so much land given them gratis, and so much money to
work with, would live very well; but what would this do for
the support of the rest? who were supposed to be to every
twenty farmers, forty or fifty families of other people; some
of one trade, some of another, with women and children?
to this it was answered, that these twenty fanners would by
the consequence of their own settlements, provide for, and
employ such a proportion of others of their own people, that
by thus providing for twenty families in a place, the whole
number of Palatinates would have been provided for, had they
been 20000 more in number than they were, and that without
being any burthen upon, or injury to the people of England;
on the contrary, they would have been an advantage, and an
addition of wealth and strength to the nation, and to the country
in particular where they should be thus seated: For example;

As soon as the land was mark'd out, the farmers put in
possession of it, and the money given them, they should be
oblig'd to go to work, in order to their settlement; suppose it
then to be in the spring of the year, when such work was most
proper; First all hands would be required, to fence, and part
off the land, and clear it of the timber, or bushes, or what ever
else was upon it, which requir'd to be remov'd: The first thing
therefore which the farmers would do, would be to single out
from the rest of their number, every one three servants, that is
to say, two men, and a maid; less cou'd not answer the prepara-
tions they would be oblig'd to make, and yet work hard them-
selves also; by the help of these, they would with good manage-
ment soon get so much of their land cur'd, fenc'd off, plow'd,
and sow'd, as should yeild them a sufficiency of corn and
kitchin stuff, the very first year, both for horse-meat, hog-meat,
food for the family, and some to carry to market too, by which
to bring in money to go farther on, as above.

At the first enterance, they were to have the tents allowed

HAMPSHIRE 203

them to live in, which they then had from the Tower; but as
soon as leisure, and conveniences admitted, every farmer was
oblig'd to begin to build him a farm house, which he would do
gradually, some and some, as he could spare time from his
other works, and money from his little stock.

In order to furnish himself with carts, waggons, plows,
harrows, wheel-barrows, hurdles, and all such necessary uten-
tisils of husbandry; there would be an absolute necessity of
wheelwrights, or cartwrights, one at least to each division.

Thus by the way, there would be employed three servants
to each farmer, that makes sixty persons.

Four families of wheelwrights, one to each division: which
suppose five in a family, makes 20 persons; suppose four head
carpenters, with each three men, and as at first all would be
building together, they would to every house building have
at least one labourer, four families of carpenters, five to each
family, and three servants, is thirty two persons, one labourer
to each house building, is twenty persons more.

Thus here would be necessarily brought together, in the very
first of the work 132 persons, besides the head farmers, who
at five also to each family are hundred more, in all two hundred
thirty two.

For the necessary supply of these with provisions, deaths,
houshold-stuff, &c. for all should be done among themselves;
first, they must have at least four butchers with their families;
twenty persons, four shoemakers with their families, and each
shoemaker two journeymen for every trade; would encrease
the number of customers to every trade: This is twenty eight
persons more.

They would then require a hatmaker, a glover, at least two
ropemakers, four taylors, three weavers of woollen, and three
weavers of linnen, two basketmakers, two common brewers,
ten or twelve shop-keepers to furnish chandlery and grocery
wares; and as many for drapery and mercery, over and above
what they could work, this makes two and forty families more,
each at five in a family, which is two hundred and ten persons;
all the labouring part of these must have at least two servants,
the brewers more, which I cast up at forty more.

Add to these two ministers, one clerk, one sexton, or grave-
digger with their families, two physicians, three apothecaries,
two surgeons, less there could not be, only that for the beginning
it might be said the physicians should be surgeons, and I take

204 DEFOE'S TOUR

them so; this is forty five persons, besides servants; so that in
short, to omit many tradesmen more who would be wanted
among them, there would necessarily, and voluntarily follow,
to these twenty families of farmers at least six hundred more
of their own people.

It is no difficult thing to show that the ready money of 4oooZ.
which the government was to advance to those twenty farmers,
would employ and pay, and consequently subsist all these
numerous dependants, in the works which must severally be
done for them, for the first year; after which the farmers would
begin to receive their own money back again; for all these
tradesmen must come to their own market to buy corn, flesh,
milk, butter, cheese, bacon, &c. which after the first year the
farmers having no rent to pay, would have to spare sufficiently,
and so take back their own money with advantage; I need not
go on to mention, how by consequence provisions encreasing,
and money circulating, this town should encrease in a very
little time.

It was propos'd also that for the encouragement of all the
handicraftsmen, and labouring poor, who either as servants,
or as labourers for day-work, assisted the farmers or other
tradesmen, they should have every man three acres of ground
given them, with leave to build cottages upon the same, the
allotments to be upon the waste, at the end of the cross-roads
where they entered the town.

In the center of the square was laid out a circle of twelve
acres of ground, to be cast into streets for inhabitants to build
on, as their ability would permit; all that would build to have
ground gratis for twenty years, timber out of the forest, and
convenient yards, gardens and orchards allotted to every house.

In the great streets near where they cross each other, was
to be built a handsome market-house, with a town-hall for
parish or corporation business, doing justice and the like; also
shambles, and in a handsome part of the ground mentioned to
be laid out for streets, as near the center as might be, was to be
ground laid out for the building a church, which every man
should either contribute to the building of, in money, or give
every tenth day of his time to assist in labouring at the building.

I have omitted many tradesmen, who would be wanted here,
and would find a good livelihood among their country folks;
only to get accidental work, as daymen, or labourers; of which
such a town would constantly employ many, as also poor women
for assistance in families, such as midwives, nurses, &c.

HAMPSHIRE 205

Adjacent to the town was to be a certain quantity of common
land, for the benefit of the cottages; that the poor might have a
few sheep, or cows as their circumstances requir'd; and this to
be appointed at the several ends of the town.

There was a calculation made of what encrease here would
be, both of wealth and people in twenty years in this town;
what a vast consumption of provisions they would cause, more
than the four thousand acres of land given them would pro-
duce; by which consumption and encrease, so much advantage
would accrue to the publick stock, and so many subjects be
added to the many thousands of Great Britain; who in the next
age would be all true born Englishmen, and forget both the
language, and nation from whence they came; and it was in
order to this that two ministers were appointed, one of which
should officiate in English, and the other in High Dutch; and
withal to have them oblig'd by a law to teach all their children
both to speak, read and write the English language.

Upon their encrease they would also want barbers, and
glasiers, painters also, and plumbers; a wind-mill or two, and
the millers and their families, a fiilling-mill, and a cloth worker;
as also a master clothier, or two, for making a manufacture
among them for their own wear, and for employing the women
and children; a dyer or two, for dying their manufactures; and,
which above all, is not to be omitted, four families at least of
smiths, with every one two servants; considering that besides
all the family work, which continually employs a smith, all
the shoeing of horses, all the iron-work of plows, carts, waggons,
harrows, &c. must be wrought by them.

There was no allowance made for inns, and ale-houses, seeing
it would be frequent that those who kept publick houses of
any sort, would likewise have some other employment to
carry on.

This was the scheme for settling the Palatinates, by which
means twenty families of farmers, handsomely set up, and
supported, would lay a foundation, as I have said, for six or
seven hundred of the rest of their people; and as the land in
New Forest is undoubtedly good, and capable of improvement
by such cultivation, so other wastes in England are to be found
as fruitful as that; and twenty such villages might have been
erected, the poor strangers maintain'd, and the nation evidently
be bettered by it; as to the money to be advanc'd, which in the
case of twenty such settlements, at 40002. each, would be SooooZ.
two things were answer'd to it.

206 DEFOE'S TOUR

1. That the annual rent to be received for all those lands
after twenty years, would abundantly pay the publick for the
first disbursses on the scheme above, that rent being then to
amount to 4ooooZ. per arm.

2. More money than would have done this, was expended,
or rather thrown away upon them here, to keep them in suspense,
and afterwards starve them; sending them a begging all over the
nation, and shipping them off to perish in other countries:
Where the mistake lay, is none of my business to enquire.

I reserved this account for this place, because I pass'd in this
journey over the very spot where the design was laid out;
namely, neax Lindhurst, in the road from Rumsey to Limington,
whither I now directed my course.

Limington is a little, but populous sea port, standing opposite
to the Isle of Wight, in the narrow part of the streight, which
ships some times pass thro', in fair weather, calTd, the Needles;
and right against an ancient town of that island calTd Yarmouth,
and which, in distinction from the great town of Yarmouth
in Norfolk, is calTd South Yarmouth: This town of Limington
is chiefly noted for making fine salt, which is indeed excellent
good; and from whence all these south parts of England are
supply'd, as well by water as by land carriage; and sometimes,
tho* not often, they send salt to London, when contrary winds
having kept the northern fleets back, the price at London has
been very high; but this is very seldom and uncertain. Liming-
ton sends two members to Parliament, and this and her salt
trade is all I can say to her; for tho' she is very well situated,
as to the convenience of shipping, I do not find they have any
foreign commerce, except it be what we call smugling, and
roguing; which, I may say, is the reigning commerce of all this
part of the English coast, from the mouth of the Thames to
the Land's End of Cornwall.

From hence there are but few towns on the sea coast west,
tho* there are several considerable rivers empty themselves into
the sea, nor are there any harbours, or sea ports of any note,
except Pool: As for Christ Church, tho' it stands at the mouth
of the Avon, which, as I have said, comes down from Salisbury,
and brings with it all the waters of the south and east parts of
Wiltshire; and receives also the Stour and Piddle, two Dorset-
shire rivers, which bring with them all the waters of the north
part of Dorsetshire; yet it is a very inconsiderable poor place,
scarce worth seeing, and less worth mentioning in this account;

HAMPSHIRE 207

only, that it sends two members to Parliament, which many
poor towns in this part of England do, as well as that.

From hence I stept up into the country north-west, to see
the ancient town of Wimburn, or Wimburnminster; There
I found nothing remarkable, but the church, which is indeed
a very great one, ancient, and yet very well built, with a very
firm strong square tower, considerably high; but was, without
doubt, much finer, when on the top of it, stood a most exquisite
spire, finer and taller, if fame lyes not, than that at Salisbury, and,
by its situation, in a plainer, flatter country, visible, no question,
much farther: But this most beautiful ornament was blown down
by a sudden tempest of wind, as they tell us, in the year 1622.

The church remains a venerable piece of antiquity, and has
in it the remains of a place, once, much more in request than it is
now; for here are the monuments of several noble families; and
in particular of one king, viz. King Etheldred, who was slain in
battle by the Danes : He was a prince fam'd for piety and religion,
and, according to the zeal of these times, was esteem'd as a
martyr; because venturing his life against the Danes, who were
heathens, he died fighting for his religion and his country. The
inscription upon his grave is preserved, and has been carefully
repair J d, so as to be easily read, and is as follows:

In hoc loco quiescit Corpus S. Etheldredi, Regis West Saxonum,
Martyris, qui Anno Dom. DCCCLXXIL xxiii. Aprilis per Manus
Danorum Paganonim Occubuit.

In English thus:

Here rests the body of Holy Etheldred, King of the West Saxons,
and martyr, who fell by the hands of the pagan Danes, in the year
of our Lord 872, the 23d of April.

Here are also the monuments of the great Marchioness of
Exeter, mother of Edward Courtney, Earl of Devonshire, and
last of the family of Courtneys who enjoy'd that honour; as
also of John de Beaufort Duke of Somerset, and his wife,
grand-mother of King Henry VII. by her daughter Margaret,
Countess of Richmond.

This last lady I mention, because she was foundress of a very
fine free-school, which has since been enlarged, and had a new
benefactress in Queen Elizabeth, who has enlarged the stipend
and annex'd it to the foundation: The famous Cardinal Pool
was dean of this church before his exaltation.

Having said this of the church, I have said all that is worth
naming of the town; except that the inhabitants, who are

* H 820

208 DEFOE'S TOUR

many, and poor, are chiefly maintained by the manufacture of
knitting stockings, which employs great part indeed of the
county of Dorset, of which this is the first town eastward.

South of this town, over a sandy wild and barren country,
we came to Pool, a considerable sea-port, and indeed the most
considerable in all this part of England; for here I found some
ships, some merchants, and some trade; especially, here were
a good number of ships fitted out every year to the Newfound-
land fishing, in which the Pool men were said to have been
particularly successful for many years past.

The town sits in the bottom of a great bay, or inlet of the
sea, which entring at one narrow mouth opens to a very great
breadth within the entrance, and comes up to the very shoar of
this town; it runs also west up almost to the town of Wareham,
a little below which, it receives the rivers Froom and Piddle, the
two principal rivers of the county.

This place is famous for the best, and biggest oysters in all
this part of England, which the people of Pool pretend to be
famous for pickling, and they are barrelTd up here, and sent
not only to London, but to the West Indies, and to Spain, and
Italy, and other parts. 'Tis observed more pearl are found in the
Pool oysters, and larger than in any other oysters about England.

As the entrance into this large bay is narrow, so it is made
narrower by an island, calPd Branksey, which lying in the very
mouth of the passage, divides it into two, and where there is an
old castle, calTd Branksey Castle, built to defend the entrance,
and this strength was very great advantage to the trade of this
port, in the time of the late war with France.

Wareham is a neat town, and full of people, having a share
of trade with Pool it self, it shows the ruins of a large town,
and 'tis apparent has had eight churches, of which they have
three remaining.

South of Wareham, and between the bay I have mention'd
and the sea, lyes a large tract of land, which being surrounded
by the sea, except on one side is calTd an island, tho' it is really
what should be call'd a peninsula; this tract of land is better
inhabited than the sea coast of lids west end of Dorsetshire
generally is, and the manufacture of stockings is carry'd on
there also; it is called the Isle of Purbeck, and has in the middle
of it a large market-town, call'd Corf, and from the famous
castle there, the whole town is now call'd Corf-Castle, it is a
corporation, sending members to Parliaments.

This part of the country is eminent for vast quarreys of

DORSETSHIRE 209

stone, which is cut out flat, and us'd in London in great quantities
for paving court-yards, alleys, avenues to houses, kitchins, foot-
ways on the sides of the high-streets, and the like; and is very
profitable to the place, as also in the number of shipping employed
in bringing it to London. There are also several rocks of very
good marble, only that the veins in the stone are not black and
white, as the Italian, but grey, red, and other colours.

From hence to Weymouth, which is miles we rode in

view of the sea; the country is open, and in some respects
pleasant, but not like the northern parts of the county, which
are all fine carpet ground, soft as velvet, and the herbage,
sweet as garden herbs, which makes their sheep be the best in
England, if not in the world, and their wool fine to an extream.

I cannot omit here a small adventure, which was very sur-
prizing to me on this journey; passing this plain country, we
came to an open peice of ground where a neighbouring gentle-
man had at a great expence laid out a proper peice of land for
a Decoy, or Duck-coy, as some call it; the works were but newly
done, the planting young, the ponds very large, and well made;
but the proper places for shelter of the fowl not cover'd, the trees
not being grown, and men were still at work improving, and
enlarging, and planting on the adjoyning heath, or common:
Near the decoy keeper's house, were some places where young
decoy-ducks were hatch'd, or otherwise kept to fit them for their
work; To preserve them from vermin, polecats, kites, and such
like, they had set traps, as is usual in such cases, and a gibbet
by it, where abundance of such creatures as were taken were
hang'd up for show.

While the decoy man was busy showing the new-works,
he was alarm' d with a great cry about this house for Help,
Help, and away he run, like the wind, guessing, as we supposed,
that something was catch'd in the trap.

It was a good big boy about 13 or 14 year old, that cry'd out,
for coming to the place, he found a great fowl catch'd by the
leg in the trap, which yet was so strong, and so outrageous,
that the boy going too near him, he flew at him, and frighted
him, bit him, and beat him with his wings, for he was too strong
for the boy; as the master ran from the decoy, so another man-
servant ran from the house, and finding a strange creature fast
in the trap, not knowing what it was, laid at him with a great
stick; the creature fought him a good while, but at length he
struck him an unlucky blow, which quieted him; after this we
all came up to see what was the matter, and found a monstruous

210 DEFOE'S TOUR

eagle caught by the leg in the trap, and kill'd by the fellow's
cudgel, as above.

When the master came to know what it was, and that his
man had kill'd it, he was ready to kill the fellow for his pains,
for it was a noble creature indeed, and would have been worth
a great deal to the man to have it shown about the country, or
to have sold to any gentleman curious in such things; but the
eagle was dead, and there we left it: Tis probable this eagle
had flown over the sea from France, either there, or at the Isle
of Weight, where the Channel is not so wide; for we do not find
that any eagles are known to breed in those parts of Britain.

From hence we turn'd up to Dorchester, the county town,
tho ? not the largest town in the county; Dorchester is indeed
a pleasant agreeable town to live in, and where I thought the
people seem'd less divided into factions and parties, than in
other places; for though here are divisions and the people are
not all of one mind, either as to religion, or politicks, yet they
did not seem to separate with so much animosity as in other
places: Here I saw the Church of England clergymen, and the
Dissenting minister, or preacher drinking tea together, and
conversing with civility and good neighbourhood, like catholick
Christians, and men of a catholick, and extensive charity: The
town is populous, tho' not large, the streets broad, but the
buildings old, and low; however, there is good company and a
good deal of it; and a man that coveted a retreat in this world
might as agreeably spend his time, and as well in Dorchester,
as in any town I know in England.

The downs round this town are exceeding pleasant, and come
up on every side, even to the very streets end ; and here it was
that they told me, that there were 600 thousand sheep fed on
the downs, within six miles of the town; that is, six miles every
way, which is twelve miles in diameter, and thirty six miles
in circumference. This I say, I was told, I do not affirm it to
be true; but when I viewed the country round, I confess I could
not but incline to believe it.

It is observable of these sheep, that they are exceeding fruitful,
and the ews generally bringing two lambs, and they are for that
reason bought by all the farmers thro' the east part of England,
who come to Burford Fair in this country to buy them, and
carry them into Kent and Surry eastward, and into Buckingham-
shire, and Bedfordshire, and Oxfordshire north, even our
Bansted Downs in Surrey, so fam'd for good mutton, is supply'd
from this place: The grass, or herbage of these downs is full of

DORSETSHIRE 211

the sweetest, and the most aromatick plants, such as nourish
the sheep to a strange degree, and the sheeps dung again
nourishes that herbage to a strange degree; so that the valleys
are rendered extreamly fruitful, by the washing of the water
in hasty showers from off these hills.

An eminent instance of this is seen at Amesbury in Wiltshire,
the next county to this, for it is the same thing in proportion
over this whole county: I was told that at this town there was
a meadow on the bank of the river Avon, which runs thence
to Salisbury, which was let for izl. a year per acre for the
grass only: This I enquired particularly after, at the place, and
was assured by the inhabitants as one man, that the fact was
true, and was shew'd the meadows; the grass which grew on
them was such as grew to the length of ten or twelve foot,
rising up to a good height, and then taking root again, and
was of so rich a nature as to answer very well such an ex-
travagant rent.

The reason they gave for this, was the extraordinary richness
of the soil, made so, as above, by the falling, or washing of the
rains from the hills adjacent, by which tho* no other land
thereabouts had such a kind of grass, yet all other meadows,
and low grounds of the valley were extreamly rich in proportion,
^ There are abundance of good families, and of very antient
lines in the neighbourhood of this town of Dorchester, as the
Napiers, the Courtneys, Strangeways, Seymours, Banks, Tre-
gonells, Sedenhams, and many others, some of which have very
great estates in the county, and in particular Colonel Strange-
ways, Napier, and Courtney. The first of these is master of the
famous swannery, or nursery of swans, the like of which I believe
is not in Europe; I wonder any man should pretend to travel over
this country, and pass by it too, and then write his account, and
take no notice of it.

From Dorchester it is six miles to the sea side south, and the
ocean in view almost all the way: The first town you come to
is Weymouth, or Weymouth and Melcomb, two towns lying at
the mouth of a little rivulet, which they call the Wey, but scarce
claims the name of a river; however, the entrance makes a
very good, tho j small harbour, and they are joyn'd by a wooden
bridge; so that nothing but the harbour parts them; yet they
are seperate corporations, and choose each of them two Members
of Parliament, just as London and Southwark.

Weymouth is a sweet, clean, agreeable town, considering its
low situation, and dose to the sea; 'tis well built, and has a great

212 DEFOE'S TOUR

many good substantial merchants in it; who drive a considerable
trade, and have a good number of ships belonging to the town:
They carry on now, in time of peace, a trade with France;
but besides this, they trade also to Portugal, Spain, Newfound-
land, and Virginia; and they have a large correspondence also
up in the country for the consumption of their returns ; especially
the wine trade, and the Newfoundland trade are considerable
here.

Without the harbour is an old castle, calTd Sandfoot Castle,
and over-against them, where there is a good road for ships to
put in on occasions of bad weather, is Portland Castle, and the
road is calTd Portland Road: While I was here once, there came
a merchant ship into that road, calTd Portland Road, under
a very hard storm of wind; she was homeward bound from
Oporto for London, laden with wines, and as she came in, she
made signals of distress to the town, firing guns for help, and
the like, as is usual in such cases; it was in the dark of the
night that the ship came in, and, by the help of her own pilot,
found her way into the road, where she came to an anchor,
but, as I say, fir'd guns for help.

The venturous Weymouth-men went off, even before it was
light, with two boats to see who she was, and what condition
she was in, and found she was come to an anchor, and had
struck her top-masts; but that she had been in bad weather,
had lost an anchor and cable before, and had but one cable to
trust to, which did hold her, but was weak; and as the storm
continued to blow, they expected every hour to go on shore,
and split to pieces.

Upon this, the Weymouth boats came back with such dili-
gence, that, in less than three hours, they were on board them
again with an anchor and cable, which they immediately bent
in its place, and let go to assist the other, and thereby secur'd the
ship: Tis true, that they took a good price of the master for the
help they gave him; for they made him draw a bill on his
owners at London for 12!. for the use of the anchor, cable,
and boat, besides some gratuities to the men: But they sav*d
the ship and cargo by it, and in three or four days the weather
was calm, and he proceeded on his voyage, returning the anchor
and cable again; so that, upon the whole, it was not so extra-
vagant as at first I thought it to be.

The Isle of Portland, on which the castle I mention'd stands,
lies right against this port of Weymouth: Hence it is, that our
best and whitest free stone comes, with which the cathedral of

DORSETSHIRE 213

St. Paul's, the Monument, and all the publick edifices in the
city of London, are chiefly built; and 'tis wonderful, and well
worth the observation of a traveller to see the quarries in the
rocks, from whence they are cut out, what stones, and of what
prodigious a size are cut out there.

The island is indeed little more than one continued rock of
free stone, and the height of the land is such, that from this
island they see, in clear weather, above half over the Channel
to France, tho' the Channel here is very broad; the sea off of
this island, and especially to the west of it, is counted the most
dangerous part of the British Channel: Due south, there is
almost a continued disturbance in the waters, by reason of
what they call two tides meeting, which I take to be no more
than the setts of the currents from the French coast, and from
the English shore meeting: This they call Portland Race; and
several ships, not aware of these currents, have been embay'd
to the west of Portland, and been driven on shore on the beach,
(of which I shall speak presently) and there lost.

To prevent this danger, and guide the mariner in these
distresses, they have, within these few months, set up two
light-houses on the two points of that island; and they had not
been many months set up, with the directions given to the
publick for their bearings, but we found three outward-bound
East-India ships which were in distress in the night, in a hard
extream gale of wind, were so directed by those lights, that
they avoided going on shore by it, which, if the lights had not
been there, would inevitably happened to their destruction.

This island, tho' seemingly miserable, and thinly inhabited,
yet the inhabitants being almost all stone-cutters, we found
there was no very poor people among them; and when they
collected money for the rebuilding St. Paul's, they got more in
this island than in the great town of Dorchester, as we were told.

Tho' Portland stands a league off from the main land of
Britain, yet it is almost joyn'd by a prodigious riffe of beach,
that is to say, of small stones cast up by the sea, which runs
from the island so near the shore of England, that they ferry
over with a boat and a rope, the water not being above half a
stones throw over; and the said riffe of beach ending, as it
were, at that inlet of water, turns away west, and runs parallel
with the shore quite to Abbotsbury, which is a town about
seven miles beyond Weymouth.

I name this for two reasons; first, to explain again what I said
before, of ships being embay'd and lost here: This is when

2i 4 DEFOE'S TOUR

ships coming from the westward omit to keep a good offing, or
are taken short by contrary winds, and cannot weather the high
land of Portland, but are driven between Portland and the main
land; if they can come to an anchor, and ride it out, well and
good, and if not, they run on shore on that vast beach, and are
lost without remedy.

On the inside of this beach, and between it, and the land,
there is, as I have said, an inlet of water, which they ferry over,
as above, to pass and repass to and from Portland: This inlet
opens at about two miles west, and grows very broad, and makes
a kind of lake within the land of a mile and a half broad, and
near three miles in length, the breadth unequal. At the farthest
end west of this water is a large duck-coy, and the verge of
the water well grown with wood, and proper groves of trees
for cover for the foul; in the open lake, or broad part, is a
continual assembly of swans: Here they live, feed and breed,
and the number of them is such, that, I believe, I did not see
so few as 7 or 8000. Here they are protected, and here they
breed in abundance; we saw several of them upon the wing,
very high in the air, whence we supposed, that they flew over
the riffe of beach, which parts the lake from the sea to feed on
the shores as they thought fit, and so came home again at their
leisure.

From this duck-coy west, the lake narrows, and at last
almost closes, till the beach joyns the shore; and so Portland
may be said not to be an island, but part of the continent; and
now we came to Abbotsbury, a town anciently famous for a great
monastery, and now eminent for nothing but its ruins.

From hence we went on to Bridport, a pretty large corporation
town on the sea shore, tho' without a harbour: Here we saw
boats all the way on the shore fishing for mackerell, which they
take in the easiest manner imaginable; for they fix one end of
the net to a pole, set deep into the sand, then the net being in
a boat, they row right out into the water some length, then
turn, and row parallel with the shore, vering out the net all the
while, till they have let go all the net, except the line at the
end, and then the boat rows on shore, when the men haling the
net to the shore at both ends, bring to shore with it such fish,
as they surrounded in the little way they rowed; this, at that
time, proved to be an incredible number, insomuch, that the
men could hardly draw them on shore: As soon as the boats
had brought their fish on shore, we observed a guard, or watch,
placed on the shore in several places, who we found had their

DORSETSHIRE 215

eye not on the fishermen, but on the country people, who came
down to the shore to buy their fish; and very sharp we found
they were; and some that came with small carts were obliged
to go back empty, without any fish. When we came to enquire
into the particulars of this, we found, that these were officers
placed on the shore by the justices and magistrates of the towns
about, who were order'd to prevent the country farmers buying
the mackerell to dung their land with them, which was thought
to be dangerous, as to infection: In short, such was the plenty
of fish that year, that mackerell, the finest and largest I evet
saw, were sold at the sea side a hundred for a penny.

From Bridport, a town in which we see nothing remarkable,
we came to Lime, the town particularly made famous by the
landing of the Duke of Monmouth, and his unfortunate troop,
in the time of King James II. of which I need say nothing, the
history of it being so recent in the memory of so many living.

This is a town of good figure, and has in it several eminent
merchants, who carry on a considerable trade to France, Spain,
Newfoundland, and the Streights; and tho* they have neither
creek or bay, road, or river, they have a good harbour; but
'tis such a one as is not in all Britain besides, if there is such a
one in any part of the world.

It is a massy pile of building, consisting of high and thick
walls of stone, rais'd, at first, with all the methods that skill and
art could devise, but maintain'd now with very little difficulty:
The walls are rais'd in the main sea, at a good distance from
the shore; it consists of one main and solid wall of stone, large
enough for carts and carriages to pass on the top, and to admit
houses and ware houses to be built on it; so that it is broad as
a street; opposite to this, but farther into the sea, is another
wall of the same workmanship, which crosses the end of the first
wall, and comes about with a tail, parallel to the first wall.

Between the point of the first or main wall, is the entrance
into the port, and the second, or opposite wall, breaking the
violence of the sea from the entrance, the ships go into the
basin, as into a peer, or harbour, and ride there as secure as in
a mill pond, or as in a wet dock.

The town's people have the benefit of this wonderful harbour,
and it is carefully kept in repair, as indeed it behoves them to do;
but they could give me nothing of the history of it; nor do they,
as I could perceive, know anything of the original of it, or who
built it; it was lately almost beaten down by a storm, but is
repaired again.

2i6 DEFOE'S TOUR

This work is calTd the COBB: The custom-house officers have
a lodge and warehouse upon it, and there were several ships of
very good force, and rich in value, in the basin of it when I was
there: It might be strengthen'd with a fort, and the walls them-
selves are firm enough to carry what guns they please to plant
upon it; but they did not seem to think it needful; and as the
shore is convenient for batteries, they have some guns planted
in proper places, both for the defence of the COBB, and the
town also.

This town is under the government of a mayor and aldermen,
and may pass for a place of wealth, considering the bigness of
it: Here we found the merchants began to trade in the pitchard
fishing, tho' not to so considerable a degree as they do farther
west; the pitchards seldom coming up so high eastward as
Portland, and not very often so high as Lime.

It was in sight of these hills that Queen Elizabeth's fleet,
under the command of the Lord Howard of Effingham, then
admiral, began first to engage in a close, and resolv'd fight
with the invincible Spanish Armada, in 1588: Maintaining the
fight, the Spaniards making eastward, till they came the length
of Portland Race, where they gave it over; the Spaniards having
receiv'd considerable damage, and keeping then closer together.
Off of the same place was a desperate engagement in the year
1672, between the English and Dutch, in which the Dutch were
worsted, and driven over to the coast of France, and then glad
to make home to refit and repair.

While we stay'd here some time viewing this town and coast,
we had opportunity to observe the pleasant way of conversation,
as it is managed among the gentlemen of this county, and their
families, which are without reflection some of the most polite
and well bred people in the isle of Britain: As their hospitality
is very great, and their bounty to the poor remarkable, so their
generous friendly way of living with, visiting, and associating
one with another is as hard to be described, as it is really to be
admired; they seem to have a mutual confidence in, and friend-
ship with one another, as if they were all relations; nor did
I observe the sharping ticking temper, which is too much
crept in among the gameing and horse-racing gentry in some
parts of England, to be so much known among them, any
otherwise than to be abhorr'd; and yet they sometimes play
too, and make matches, and horse-races, as they see occasion.
The ladies here do not want the help of assemblies to assist
in match-making; or half-pay officers to run away with their

DORSETSHIRE 217

daughters, which the meetings, calTd assemblies in some other
parts of England, are recommended for: Here's no Bury Fair,
where the women are scandalously said to carry themselves to
market, and where every night they meet at the play, or at the
assembly for intreague, and yet I observ'd that the women do
not seem to stick on hand so much in this country, as in those
countries, where those assemblies are so lately set up; the
reason of which I cannot help saying, if my opinion may bear
any weight, is, that the Dorsetshire ladies are equal in beauty,
and may be superiour in reputation; In a word, their reputation
seems here to be better kept; guarded by better conduct, and
manag'd with more prudence, and yet the Dorsetshire ladies,
I assure you, are not nuns, they do not go vaiTd about streets,
or hide themselves when visited; but a general freedom of
conversation, agreeable, mannerly, kind, and good runs thro'
the whole body of the gentry of both sexes, mix'd with the best
of behaviour, and yet governed by prudence and modesty; such
as I no where see better in all my observation, thro' the whole
isle of Britain. In this little interval also I visited some of the
biggest towns in the north-west part of this county, as Bland-
ford, a town on the river Stour in the road between Salisbury
and Dorchester, a handsome well built town, but chiefly famous
for making the finest bonelace in England, and where they
shewM me some so exquisitely fine, as I think I never saw better
in Flanders, France or Italy, and which they said, they rated at
above 307. sterling a yard; but I suppose there was not much
of this to be had, but 'tis most certain, that they make exceeding
rich lace in that county, such as no part of England can equal.

From thence I went west to Stourbridge, vulgarly calTd
Strabridge; the town, and the country round is employed in
the manufacture of stockings, and which was once famous for
making the finest, best, and highest priz'd knit stockings in
England; but that trade now is much decay'd by the encrease
of the knitting-stocking engine, or frame, which has destroyed
the hand knitting-trade for fine stockings thro' the whole
kingdom, of which I shall speak more in its place.

From hence I came to Shireburn, a large and populous town,
with one collegiate, or conventual church, and may properly
claim to have more inhabitants in it than any town in Dorset-
shire, tho' it is neither the county town, or does it send members
to Parliament; the church is still a reverend pile, and shews the
face of great antiquity. Here begins the Wiltshire medley
cloathing, tho' this town be in Dorsetshire; of which I shall

2i8 DEFOE'S TOUR

speak at large in its place, and therefore I omit any discourse
of it here.

Shaftsbury is also on the edge of this county, adjoyning to
Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, being 14 miles from Salisbury, over
that fine down or carpet ground, which they call particularly,
or properly Salisbury Plain. It has neither house or town in
view all the way, and the road which often lyes very broad,
and branches off insensibly, might easily cause a traveller to
loose his way, but there is a certain never failing assistance
upon all these downs for telling a stranger his way, and that is
the number of shepherds feeding, or keeping their vast flocks of
sheep, which are every where in the way, and who, with a very
little pains, a traveller may always speak with. Nothing can be
like it, the Arcadians plains of which we read so much pastoral
trumpery in the poets, could be nothing to them.

This Shaftsbury is now a sorry town, upon the top of a high
hill, and which doses the plain, or downs, and whence nature
presents you a new scene or prospect, (viz.) of Somerset and
Wiltshire, where 'tis all enclosed, and grown with woods, forests,
and planted hedge-rows: The country rich, fertile and populous,
the towns and houses standing thick, and being large and full
of inhabitants, and those inhabitants fully employ'd in the
richest and most valuable manufacture in the world, (viz.)
the English cloathing, as well, the medley, or mixt clothing, as
whites; as well for the home trade, as the foreign trade; of
which I shall take leave to be very particular in my return
thro' the west and north part of Wiltshire, in the latter part
of this work.

In my return to my western progress, I pass'd some little
part of Somersetshire, as thro* Evil, or Yeovil, upon the river
Ivil, in going to which we go down a long steep hill, which they
call Babylon-Hill; but from what original I could find none of
the country people to inform me.

This Yeovil is a market town of good resort, and some clothing
is carry'd on, in, and near it, but not much, its main manufacture
at this time is making of gloves.

It cannot pass my observation here, that when we are come
this length from London, the dialect of the English tongue, or
the country way of expressing themselves is not easily under-
stood, it is so strangely altered; it is true, that it is so in many
parts of England besides, but in none in so gross a degree as in
this part; This way of boorish country speech, as in Ireland,
it is call'd the brogue upon the tongue; so here 'tis caU'djouring

SOMERSETSHIRE 219

and 'tis certain, that tho* the tongue be all meer natural English,
yet those that are but a little acquainted with them, cannot
understand one half of what they say: It is not possible to
explain this fully by writing, because the difference is not so
much in the orthography of words, as in the tone, and diction;
their abridging the speech, cham for I am, chil for / will, don,
for put on, and doff, for put off, and the like. And I cannot omit
a short story here on this subject; coming to a relations house,
who was a school-master at Martock in Somersetshire, I went
into his school to beg the boys a play day, as is usual in such
cases; I should have said to beg the master a play day, but that
by the way; coming into the school, I observed one of the lowest
scholars was reading his lesson to the usher, which lesson it
seems was a chapter in the Bible, so I sat down by the master,
till the boy had read out his chapter: I observ'd the boy read a
little oddly in the tone of the country, which made me the
more attentive, because on enquiry, I found that the words
were the same, and the orthography the same as in all our
Bibles. I observ'd also the boy read it out with his eyes still
on the book, and his head like a meer boy, moving from side
to side, as the lines reach'd cross the columns of the book;
his lesson was in the Cant. 5. 3. of which the words are these,

"I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on, I have wash'd
my feet, how shall I defile them?"

The boy read thus, with his eyes, as I say, full on the text.

"Chav a doffed my cooat, how shall I don't, chav a wash'd
my veet, how shall I moiTem?"

How the dexterous dunce could form his mouth to express
so readily the words, (which stood right printed in the book) in
his country jargon, I could not but admire; I shall add to this
another peice as diverting, which also happen' d in my knowledge
at this very town of Yeovil, tho' some years ago.

There liv'd a good substantial family in the town, not far
from the Angel Inn, a well known house, which was then, and
I suppose is still the chief inn of the town. This family had
a dog, which among his other good qualities, for which they
kept him (for he was a rare house dog) had this bad one, that he
was a most notorious thief; but withal, so cunning a dog, and
managed himself so warily, that he preserved a mighty good
reputation among the neighbourhood; as the family was well
beloved in the town, so was the dog; he was known to be a very
useful servant to them, especially in the night, when he was
fierce as a lion, but in the day the gentlest, lovingest creature

220 DEFOE'S TOUR

that could be, and as they said, all the neighbours had a good
word for this dog.

It happened that the good wife, or mistress at the Angel Inn,
had frequently missed several peices of meat out of the pail, as
they say, or powdering-tub, as we call it; and that some very
large peices; 'tis also to be observ'd the dog did not stay to eat
(what he took) upon the spot, in which case some peices, or
bones, or fragments might be left, and so it might be discover'd
to be a dog; but he made cleaner work, and when he fastened
upon a peice of meat he was sure to carry it quite away, to such
retreats as he knew he could be safe in, and so feast upon it
at leisure.

It happened at last, as with most thieves it does, that the
inn-keeper was too cunning for him, and the poor dog was
nabb'd, taken in the fact, and could make no defence.

Having found the thief, and got him in custody, the master
of the house, a good humour'd fellow, and loth to disoblige the
dog's master, by executing the criminal, as the dog-law directs;
mitigates his sentence, and handled him as follows; first taking
out his knife, he cut off both his ears, and then bringing him
to the threshold, he chop'd off his tail ; and having thus effectually
dishonoured the poor cur among his neighbours, he tyed a
string about his neck, and a peice of paper to the string directed
to his master, and with these witty west country verses on it.

To my honoured master Esq;

Hail master a cham a* com hoam
So cut as an ape, and tail have I noan,
For stealing of beef, and pork, out of the pail,
For thease they'v cut my ears, for th' wother my tail;
Nea measter, and us tell thee more nor that
And's come there again, my brains will be flat.

I could give many more accounts of the different dialects of
the people of this country, in some of which they are really not
to be understood, but the particulars have little or no diversion
in them, they carry it such a length, that we see their joining
speech even upon their monuments, and grave-stones; As for
example, even in some of the church-yards of the city of Bristol,
I saw this excellent poetry after some other lines

And when that thou doest hear of thick,
Think of the glass that runneth quick.

But I proceed into Devonshire, from Evil we came to Crookorn,
thence to Chard, and from thence into the same road I was in
before at Honiton.

DEVONSHIRE 221

This is a large and beautiful market-town, very populous,
and well built, and is so very remarkably pav'd with small
pebbles, that on either sides the way a little channel is left
shouldered up on the sides of it; so that it holds a small stream
of fine dear running water with a little square dipping place
left at every door, so that every family in the town has a clear
clean running river, (as it may be calTd) just at their own door,
and this so much finer, so much pleasanter, and agreeable to
look on, then that at Salisbury, which they boast so much of,
that in my opinion, there is no comparison.

Here we see the first of the great serge manufacture of
Devonshire, a trade too great to be describ'd in miniature, as it
must be, if I undertake it here; and which takes up this whole
county, which is the largest and most populous in England,
Yorkshire excepted, (which ought to be esteem'd three counties,
and is indeed divided as such into the East, West and North
Riding;) but Devonshire one entire county, is so full of great
towns, and those towns so full of people, and those people so
universally employ'd in trade, and manufactures, that not only
it cannot be equalTd in England, but perhaps not in Europe.

In my travel thro' Dorsetshire, I ought to have observ'd that
the biggest towns in that county sent no members to Parlia-
ment, and that the smallest did; that is to say, that Sherborn,
Blandford, Winbornminster, Sturmister, and several other towns
choose no members, whereas Weymouth, Melcom, and Bridport,
were all burgess towns; but now we come to Devonshire, we
find almost all the great towns, and some smaller choosing
members also; It is true, there are some large populous towns
that do not choose, but then there are so many that do, that the
county seems to have no injustice, for they send up six and
twenty members.

However, as I say above, there are several great towns which
do not choose Parliament men, of which Bidif ord is one, Crediton
or Kirton another, Ilfracomb a third, but those excepted the
principal towns in the county do all choose Members of
Parliament.

Honiton is one of those, and may pass not only for a pleasant
good town, as before, but stands in the best and pleasantest part
of the whole county; and I cannot but recommend it to any
gentlemen that travel this road, that if they please to observe
the prospect for half a mile, till their coming down the hill,
and to the entrance into Honiton, the view of the country is the
most beautiful landskip in the world, a meer picture; and I do

222 DEFOE'S TOUR

not remember the like in any one place in England; 'tis observ-
able that the market of this town was kept originally on the
Sunday, till it was chang'd by the direction of King John.

From Honiton the country is exceeding pleasant still, and on
the road they have a beautiful prospect almost all the way to
Exeter, which is twelve miles; on the left hand of this road lyes
that part of the county, which they call the South Hams, and
which is famous for the best cyder in that part of England;
also the town of St. Mary Oterey, commonly calTd St. Mary
Autree: They tell us the name is derived from the river Ottery,
and that, from the multitude of otters found always in that
river, which however to me seems fabulous; nor does there
appear to be any such great number of otters in that water,
or in the county about, more than is usual in other counties,
or in other parts of the county about them; they tell us they
send 20000 hogsheds of cyder hence every year to London, and
which is still worse, that it is most of it bought there by the
merchants to mix with their wines, which if true, is not
much to the reputations of the London vintners; but that by
the by.

From hence we came to Exeter, a city famous for two things,
which we seldom find unite in the same town, (viz.) that 'tis
full of gentry, and good company, and yet full of trade and
manufactures also; the serge market held here every week is
very well worth a strangers seeing, and next to the Brigg-Market
at Leeds in Yorkshire, is the greatest in England. The people
assured me that at this market is generally sold from 60 to 70
to 80, and sometimes a hundred thousand pounds value in
serges in a week. I think 'tis kept on Mondays.

They have the river Esk here, a very considerable river,
and principal in the whole county; and within three miles, or
thereabouts, it receives ships of any ordinary burthen, the port
there being call'd Topsham; but now by the application, and
at the expence of the citizens, the channel of the river is so
widened, deepened, and cleans'd from the shoal, which would
otherwise interrupt the navigation, that the ships come now
quite up to the city, and there with ease both deliver and take
in their lading.

This city drives a very great correspondence with Holland,
as also directly to Portugal, Spain and Italy; shipping off vast
quantities of the woollen-manufactures, especially, to Holland,
the Dutch giving very large commissions here for the buying of
serges perpetuan's, and such goods; which are made not only

DEVONSHIRE 223

in and about Exeter, but at Crediton, Honiton, Culliton, St. Mary
Autry, Newton-Bushell, Asbburton and especially at Tiverton,
Cullumbton, Bampton, and all the north east part of the county,
which part of the county is, as it may be said, fully employed,
the people made rich, and the poor that are properly so call'd,
well subsisted, and employed by it.

Excester is a large rich, beautiful, populous, and was once a
very strong city; but as to the last, as the castle, the walls, and
all the old works are demolished, so were they standing, the way
of managing seiges, and attacks of towns is such now, and so
alter'd from what it was in those days, that Excester in the utmost
strength it could ever boast, would not now hold out five days
open trenches; nay, would hardly put an army to the trouble
of opening trenches against it at all. This city was famous in
the late civil unnatural war, for its loyalty to the king, and
for being a sanctuary to the queen, where her majesty resided
for sometime, and here she was deUver'd of a daughter, being
the Princess Henrietta Maria, of whom our histories give a
particular account, so I need say no more of it here.

The cathedral church of this city is an antient beauty, or
as it may be said, it is beautiful for its antiquity; But it has been
so fully, and often described that it would look like a meer
coppying from others to mention it: There is a good library
kept in it, in which are some manuscripts, and particularly an
old missal, or mass-book, the leaves of velum, and famous for
its most exquisite writing.

This county, and this part of it in particular, has been famous
for the birth of several eminent men, as well for learning, as
for arts, and for war, as particularly: (i.) Sir William Petre,
who the learn'd Dr. Wake, now Archbishop of Canterbury,
and author of the Additions to Mr. Cambden, says, was Secretary
of State, and Privy Counsellor to King Hen. VIII. Ed. VI.
Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth, and seven times sent
ambassador into foreign countries.

2. Sir Thomas Bodley, famous, and of grateful memory to all
learned men, and lovers of letters, for his collecting, and estab-
lishing, the best library in Britain; which is now at Oxford, and
is call'd after his name the Bodleian Library to this day.

3. Also Sir Francis Drake, born at Plymouth.

4. Sir Walter Raleigh, of both those I need say nothing:
Fame publishes their merit upon every mention of their names.

5. That great patron of learning Hooker, author of the
Ecclesiastical Polity, and of several other valuable peices.

224 DEFOE'S TOUR

6. Of Dr. Arthur Duck, a fam'd civilian, and well known by
his works among the learned advocates of Doctors Commons.

7. Dr. John Moreman of Southold, famous for being the first
clergyman in England, who ventured to teach his parishoners
the Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten Commandments in the
English tongue; and reading them so publickly in the parish
church of Mayenhennet, in this county, of which he was vicar.

8. Dr. John De Brampton, a man of great learning, who
flourish'd in the reign of Hen. VL was famous, for being the
first that read Aristotle publickly in the University of Cambridge,
and for several learned books of his writing, which are now lost.

9. Peter Blundel, a clothier, who built the free-school at
Tiverton, and endowed it very handsomely, of which in its place.

10. Sir John Glanvill, a noted lawyer, and one of the judges
of the Common Pleas.

11. Sergeant Glanvill his son, as great a lawyer as his father.

12. Sir John Maynard, an eminent lawyer of later years;
one of the Commissioners of the Great Seal under King William
III. all these three were bom at Tavistock.

13. Sir Peter King, the present Lord Chief Justice of the
Common Pleas, and many others.

I shall take the north part of this county in my return from
Cornwall; so I must now lean to the south, that is to say, to the
south coast, for in going on indeed, we go south west.

About 22 miles from Excester we go to Totness, on the river
Dart. This is a very good town; of some trade, but has more
gentlemen in it than tradesmen of note; they have a very fine
stone-bridge here over the river, which being within seven or
eight miles of the sea, is very large, and the tide flows 10 or
12 foot at the bridge. Here we had the diversion of seeing
them catch fish, with the assistance of a dog. The case is this,
on the south side of the river, and on a slip, or narrow cut or
channel made on purpose for a mill, there stands a corn-mill;
the mill^tayl, or floor for the water below the wheels is wharft
up on either side with stone, above high-water mark, and for
above 20 or 30 foot in length below it, on that part of the river
towards the sea; at the end of this wharfing is a grating of wood,
the cross-bars of which stand bearing inward, sharp at the end,
and pointing inward towards one another, as the wyers of a
mouse-trap.

When the tide flows up, the fish can with ease go in between
the points of these cross-bars, but the mill being shut down they
can go no farther upwards; and when the water ebbs again,

DEVONSHIRE 225

they are left behind, not being able to pass the points of the
grating, as above, outwards; which like a mouse-trap keeps
them in, so that they are left at the bottom with about a foot,
or a foot and half water. We were carryed hither at low water,
where we saw about 50 or 60 small salmon, about 17 to 20
inches long, which the country people call salmon peal, and to
catch these, the person who went with us, who was our landlord
at a great inn next the bridge, put in a net on a hoop at the end
of a pole, the pole going cross the hoop, which we call in this
country a shove net: The net being fix'd at one end of the place
they put in a dog, who was taught his trade before hand, at
the other end of the place, and he drives all the fish into the
net, so that only holding the net still in its place, the man took
up two or three and thirty salmon peal at the first time.

Of these we took six for our dinner, for which they ask'd
a^ shilling, (viz.) two pence a peice, and for such fish not at all
bigger, and not so fresh, I have seen 6s. 6d. each given at a
London fish-market, whither they are some time brought from
Chichester by land carriage.

This excessive plenty of so good fish, and other provisions
being likewise very cheap in proportion, makes the town of
Totness a very good place to live in; especially for such as
have large families, and but small estates, and many such are
said to come into those parts on purpose for saving money, and
to live in proportion to their income.

From hence we went still south about seven miles, (all in
view of this river) to Dartmouth, a town of note, seated at the
mouth of the river Dart, and where it enters into the sea at
a very narrow, but safe entrance; The opening into Dartmouth
Harbour is not broad, but the channel deep enough for the
biggest ship in the royal navy; the sides of the entrance are
high mounded with rocks; without which just at the first
narrowing of the passage, stands a good strong fort without
a platform of guns, which commands the port.

The narrow entrance is not much above half a mile, when
it opens and makes a basin, or harbour able to receive 500 sail
of ships of any size, and where they may ride with the greatest
safety, even as in a mill-pond, or wet-dock: I had the curiosity
here with the assistance of a merchant of the town to go out
to the mouth of the haven in a boat to see the entrance, and
castle, or fort that commands it; and coming back with the
tide of flood, I observed some small fish to skip, and play upon
the surface of the water, upon which I ask'd my friend what

226 DEFOE'S TOUR

fish they were; immediately one of the rowers or seamen starts
up in the boat, and throwing his arms abroad, as if he had been
betwitch'd, cryes out as loud as he could baul, "a scool, a scool."
The word was taken to the shore as hastily as it would have
been on land if he had cry'd fire; and by that time we reached
the keys, the town was all in a kind of an uproar.

The matter was, that a great shoal, or as they call it a scool
of pilchards came swimming with the tide of flood directly, out
of the sea into the harbour. My friend whose boat we were in,
told me this was a surprize which he would have been very
glad of, if he could but have had a days or two's warning, for he
might have taken 200 tun of them, and the like was the case
of other merchants in town; for in short, no body was ready
for them, except a small fishing boat, or two; one of which went
out into the middle of the harbour, and at two or three hawls,
took about forty thousand of them. We sent our servant to the
key to buy some, who for a half-penny, brought us seventeen,
and if he would have taken them, might have had as many
more for the same money; with these we went to dinner; the
cook at the inn brofl'd them for us, which is their way of dressing
them, with pepper and salt, which cost us about a farthing; so
that two of us, and a servant din'd, and at a tavern too, for
three farthings, dressing and all, and this is the reason of telling
the tale; What drink, wine, or beer we had, I do not remember,
but whatever it was, that we paid for by it self; but for our
food we really din'd for three farthings, and very well too: Our
friend treated us the next day with a dish of large lobsters,
and I being curious to know the value of such things, and
having freedom enough with hiip to enquire; I found that for
6d. or Bd. they bought as good lobsters there, as would have
cost in London $s. to 3$. 6d. each.

In observing the coming in of those pilchards, as above, we
found that out at sea, in the offing, beyond the mouth of the
harbour there was a whole army of porpuses, which as they
told us pursued the pilchards, and 'tis probable drove them into
the harbour, as above. The scool it seems drove up the river
a great way, even as high as Totness Bridge, as we heard after-
wards; so that the country people who had boats, and nets,
catch'd as many as they knew what to do with, and perhaps
liv'd upon pilchards for several days; but as to the merchant's
and trade, their coming was so suddain, that it was no advantage
to them.

Round the west side of this basin, or harbour in a kind of

DEVONSHIRE 227

a semicircle, lyes the town of Dartmouth, a very large and
populous town, tho' but meanly built, and standing on the side
of a steep hill; yet the key is large, and the street before it
spacious. Here are some very flourishing merchants, who trade
very prosperously, and to the most considerable trading port*;
of Spain, Portugal, Italy, and the Plantations; but especially,
they are great traders to Newfoundland, and from thence to
Spain, and Italy with fish, and they drive a good trade also,
in their own fishery of pilchards, which is hereabouts carried
on with the greatest number of vessels of any port, in the west,
except Falmouth.

A little to the southward of this town, and to the east of the
port, is Torbay, of which I know nothing proper to my observa-
tion, more than that it is a very good road for ships, tho' some-
times, especially with a southerly, or S.E. wind, ships have
been oblig'd to quit the bay, and put out to sea, or run into
Dartmouth for shelter.

I suppose I need not mention, that they had from the hilly
part of this town, and especially from the hills opposite to it,
the noble prospect, and at that time particularly delightful, of
the Prince of Orange's fleet, when he came to that coast, and
as they entered into Torbay, to land; the prince and his army
being in a fleet of about 600 sail of transport ships, besides 50
sail of men of war of the line, all which with a fair wind, and
fine weather came to an anchor there at once.

This town as most of the towns of Devonshire are, is full of
Dissenters, and a very large meeting-house they have here; how
they act here with respect to the great dispute about the doctrine
of the Trinity, which has caus'd such a breach among those
people at Excester, and other parts of the county, I cannot give
any account of. This town sends two members to Parliament.

From hence we went to Plympton, a poor and thinly inhabited
town, tho' blest with the like privilege of sending members
to the Parliament; of which I have little more to say, but
that from thence the road lyes to Plymouth, distance about
six miles.

Plymouth is indeed a town of consideration, and of great
importance to the publick. The situation of it between two
very large inlets of the sea, and in the bottom of a large bay,
which is very remarkable for the advantage of navigation. The
Sound, or bay is compass'd on every side with hills, and the
shoar generally steep and rocky, tho* the anchorage is good,
and it is pretty safe riding: In the entrance to this bay, lyes

228 DEFOE'S TOUR

a large and most dangerous rock, which at high-water is cover'd,
but at low-tide lyes bare, where many a good ship has been
lost, even in the view of safety, and many a ships crew drown'd
in the night, before help could be had for them.

Upon this rock, which was calTd the Edystone, from its
situation, the famous Mr. Winstanley undertook to build a
light-house for the direction of sailors, and with great art, and
expedition finish'd it; which work considering its height, the
magnitude of its building, and the little hold there was, by
which it was possible to fasten it to the rock, stood to admiration,
and bore out many a bitter storm.

Mr. Winstanly often visited, and frequently strengthen'd the
building, by new works, and was so confident of its firmness,
and stability, that he usually said, he only desir'd to be in it
when a storm should happen, for many people had told him,
it would certainly fall, if it came to blow a little harder than
ordinary.

But he happened at last to be in it once too often; Namely,
when that dreadful tempest blew, Nov. the 27, 1703. This
tempest began on the Wednesday before, and blew with such
violence, and shook the light-house so much, that as they told
me there, Mr. Winstanly would fain have been on shoar, and
made signals for help, but no boats durst go off to him; and to
finish the tragedy, on the Friday, Nov. 26, when the tempest
was so redoubled, that it became a terror to the whole nation;
the first sight there seaward, that the people of Plymouth, were
presented with in the morning after the storm, was the bare
Eddystone, the light-house being gone; in which Mr. Winstanly,
and all that were with him perish'd, and were never seen, or
heard of since: But that which was a worse loss still, was, that
a few days after a merchant's ship call'd the Winchelsea home-
ward bound from Virginia, not knowing the Eddystone light-
house was down; for want of the light that should have been
seen run foul of the rock it self, and was lost with all her lading,
and most of her men, but there is now another light-house built
on the same rock.

What other disasters happen'd at the same time, in the
Sound, and in the roads about Plymouth, is not my business:
They are also published in other books, to which I refer.

One thing, which I was a witness too, on a former journey
to this place, I cannot omit: It was the next year after that
great storm, and but a little sooner in the year, being in August,
I was at Plymouth, and walking on the Hoo, which is a plain

DEVONSHIRE 229

on the edge of the sea, looking to the road, I observ'd the evening
so serene, so calm, so bright, and the sea so smooth, that a finer
sight, I think, I never saw; there was very little wind, but what
was, seem'd to be westerly; and, about an hour after, it blew
a little breeze at south west, with which wind there came into
the Sound, that night, and the next morning, a fleet of fourteen
sail of ships, from Barbadoes; richly loaden, for London: Having
been long at sea, most of the captains and passengers came on
shore to refresh themselves, as is usual, after such tedious
voyages, and the ships rode all in the Sound on that side next
to Catwater: As is customary, upon safe arriving to their native
country, there was a general joy and rejoycing, both on board
and on shore.

The next day the wind began to freshen, especially in the
afternoon, and the sea to be disturbed, and very hard it blew at
night, but all was well for that time; but the night after it
blew a dreadful storm, not much inferior, for the time it lasted,
to the storm mentioned above, which blew down the light-house
on the Eddy Stone; about midnight the noise indeed was very
dreadful, what with the roaring of the sea, and of the wind,
intermixed with the firing of guns for help from the ships, the
cries of the seamen and people on shore, and, which was worse,
the cries of those, which were driven on shore by the tempest,
and dash'd in pieces. In a word, all the fleet, except three, or
thereabouts, were dash'd to pieces against the rocks, and sunk
in the sea, most of the men being drowned: Those three, who
were sav'd, received so much damage, that their lading was
almost all spoiTd: One ship in the dark of the night, the men
not knowing where they were, run into Catwater, and run on
shore there, by which she was however sav'd from shipwreck,
and the lives of her crew were saved also.

This was a melancholly morning indeed; nothing was to be
seen but wrecks of the ships, and a foaming furious sea, in that
very place where they rode all in joy and triumph, but the
evening before: The captains, passengers and officers who
were, as I have said, gone on shoar, between the joy of saving
their lives, and the affliction of having lost their ships, their
cargoes, and their friends, were objects indeed worth our
compassion and observation; and there was a great variety of
the passions to be observ'd in them: Now lamenting their losses,
then giving thanks for their deliverance, many of the passengers
had lost their all, and were, as they express'd themselves, utterly
undone; they were, I say, now lamenting their losses, with

230 DEFOE'S TOUR

violent excesses of grief; then giving thanks for their lives,
and that they should be brought on shore, as it were, on purpose
to be sav'd from death; then again in tears for such as were
drowned; the various cases were indeed very affecting, and, in
many things, very instructing.

As, I say, Plymouth lyes in the bottom of this Sound, in the
center between the two waters, so there lies against it, in the
same position, an island, which they call St. Nicholas, on which
there is a castle, which commands the entrance into Ham-Oze,
and indeed that also into Catwater in some degree: In this
island the famous General Lambert, one of Cromwell's great
agents, or officers in the Rebellion was imprison' d for life, and
hVd many years there.

On the shore, over-against this island, is the citadel of Ply-
mouth, a small, but regular fortification, inaccessible by sea,
but not exceeding strong by land, except that they say the works
are of a stone, hard as marble, and would not soon yield to the
batteries of an enemy: But that is a language our modern
engineers now laugh at.

The town stands above this, upon the same rock, and lyes
sloping on the side of it, towards the east; the inlet of the sea,
which is calTd Catwater, and which is a harbour, capable of
receiving any number of ships, and of any size, washing the
eastern shore of the town, where they have a kind of natural
mole, or haven, with a key, and all other conveniencies for
bringing in vessels for loading and unloading; nor is the trade
carried on here inconsiderable in it self, or the number of
merchants small.

The other inlet of the sea, as I term it, is on the other side of
the town, and is calTd Ham-Oze, being the mouth of the river
Tamar, a considerable river, which parts the two counties of
Devon and Cornwall: Here the war with France making it
necessary that the ships of war should have a retreat nearer
hand than at Portsmouth, the late King William order 5 d a wet
dock, with yards, dry docks, launches, and conveniencies of all
kinds for building, and repairing of ships to be built; and with
these follow'd necessarily the building of store-houses and ware-
houses, for the rigging, sails, naval and military stores, &c. of
such ships as may be appointed to be laid up there, as now
several are, with very handsome houses for the commissioners,
clerks, and officers of all kinds usual in the kings yards, to dwell
in: It is in short, now become as compleat an arsenal, or yard,
for building and fitting men of war as any of the government

DEVONSHIRE AND CORNWALL 231

are masters of, and perhaps much more convenient than some
of them, tho' not so large.

The building of these things, with the addition of rope walks,
and mast-yards, &c. as it brought abundance of trades-people,
and workmen to the place, so they began by little and little to
build houses on the lands adjacent, till at length there appeared
a very handsome street, spacious and large, and as well in-
habited, and so many houses are since added, that it is become
a considerable town, and must of consequence in time draw
abundance of people from Plymouth it self.

However, the town of Plymouth is, and will always be a very
considerable town, while that excellent harbour makes it such
a general port for the receiving all the fleets of merchants ships
from the southward, as from Spain, Italy, the West-Indies, &c.
who generally make it the first port to put in at for refreshment,
or safety, from either weather or enemies.

The town is populous and wealthy, having, as above, several
considerable merchants, and abundance of wealthy shop-keepers,
whose trade depends upon supplying the sea-faring people, that
upon so many occasions put into that port; as for gentlemen,
I mean those that are such by family, and birth, and way of
living, it cannot be expected to find many such in a town,
meerly depending on trade, shipping and sea-faring business,
yet I found here some men of value, persons of liberal education,
general knowledge, and excellent behaviour, whose society
obliges me to say, that a gentleman might find very agreeable
company in Plymouth.

From Plymouth we pass the Tamar, over a ferry to Saltash,
a little poor shattered town, the first we sat foot on in the
county of Cornwall. The Tamar here is very wide, and the
ferry boats bad, so that I thought my self well escap'd, when
I got safe on shore in Cornwall.

Saltash seems to be the ruins of a larger place, and we saw
many houses as it were falling down, and I doubt not but the
mice and rats have abandoned many more, as they say they will,
when they are likely to fall; yet this town is govern'd by a
mayor and aldermen, has many privileges, sends members to
Parliament, takes toll of all vessels that pass the river, and have
the sole oyster fishing in the whole river, which is considerable.
Mr. Carew, author of the Survey of Cornwall) tells us a strange
story of a dog in this town, of whom it was observed, that if
they gave Him any large bone, or piece of meat, he immediately
went out of doors with it, and after having disappeared for

I 820

DEFOE'S TOUR

some time, would return again, upon which after some time
they watch'd him, when to their great surprise they found that
the poor charitable creature carryed what he so got to an old
decrip'd mastiff, which lay in a nest that he had made among
the brakes a little way out of the town, and was blind; so that
he could not help himself, and there this creature fed him; he
adds, also, that on Sundays, or hollydays, when he found they
made good chear in the house, where he liv'd, he would go out,
and bring this old blind dog to the door, and feed him there
till he had enough, and then go with him back to his habitation
in the country again, and see him safe in; if this story is
true, it is very remarkable indeed, and I thought it worth
telling, because the author was a person, who they say might
be credited.

This town has a kind of jurisdiction upon the river Tamar
down to the mouth of the port, so that they claim anchorage of
all small ships that enter the river, their coroner sits upon all
dead bodies that are found drown' d in the river, and the like,
but they make not much profit of them. There is a good market
here, and that is the best thing to be said of the town, it is also
very much encreased since the number of the inhabitants are
encreased at the new town, as I mentioned, as near the dock at
the mouth of Ham Oaze, for those people choose rather to go
to Saltash to market by water, then to walk to Plymouth by
land for their provisions; because, first, as they go in the town
boat, the same boat brings home what they buy; so that it is
much less trouble, (second,) because provisions are bought much
cheaper at Saltash, than at Plymouth: This I say, is Hke to be
a very great advantage to the town of Saltash, and may in
time put a new face of wealth upon the place.

They talk of some merchants beginning to trade here, and
they have some ships that use the Newfoundland fishery; but
I could not hear of any thing considerable they do in it, there is
no other considerable town up the Tamar, till we come to
Lanceston, the county town, which I shall take in my return,
so I turn'd west, keeping the south shore of the county, to the
Lands End.

From Saltash I went to Liskard, about 7 miles. This is a
considerable town, well built, has people of fashion in it, and
a very great market; it also sends two members to Parliament,
and is one of the five towns, calTd Stannary Towns, that is to
say, where the blocks of TINN are brought to the coinage, of
which by it self; this coinage of tinn is an article very much

CORNWALL 233

to the advantage of the towns where it is settled, tho* the
money paid goes another way.

This town of Liskard was once eminent, had a good castle,
and a large house, where the antient Dukes of Cornwall kept
their Court in those days; also it enjoy 'd several privileges,
especially by the favour of the Black Prince, who, as Prince of
Wales, and Duke of Cornwall resided here; and in return, they
say this town, and the country round it, rais'd a great body of
stout young fellows, who entered into his service, and followed
his fortunes in his wars in France, as also in Spain; But these
buildings are so decay'd, that there are now scarce any of the
ruins of the castle, or of the prince's Court remaining.

The only publick edifices they have now to show, are the
guild, or town-hall, on which there is a turret with a fine clock;
a very good free-school, well provided; a very fine conduit in
the market-place; an antient large church, and which is
something rare, for the county of Cornwall, a large new built
meeting-house for the Dissenters, which I name, because they
assur'd me there was but three more, and those very incon-
siderable in all the county of Cornwall; whereas in Devonshire,
which is the next county, there are reckoned about seventy,
some of which are exceeding large and fine.

This town is also remarkable for a very great trade in all
manufactures of leather, such as boots, shoes, gloves, purses,
breeches, &c. and some spinning of late years is set up here,
encourag'd by the woollen manufacturers of Devonshire.

Between these two towns of Saltash and Liskard, is
St. Germans, now a village, decay'd, and without any market,
but the largest parish in the whole county; in the bounds of
which is contained, as they report, 17 villages, and the town
of Saltash among them, for Saltash has no parish church, it
seems of it self but as a chappel of ease to St. Germans: In
the neighbourhood of these towns are many pleasant seats of
the Cornish gentry, who are indeed very numerous, tho 1 their
estates may not be so large, as is usual in England; yet neither
are they despicable in that part, and in particular this may
be said of them, that as they generally five cheap, and are
more at home than in other counties, so they live more like
gentlemen, and keep more within bounds of their estates than
the English generally do, take them altogether.

Add to this, that they are the most sociable, generous, and
to one another, the kindest neighbours that are to be found; and
as they generally live, as we may say, together, for they are

234 DEFOE'S TOUR

almost always at one anothers houses, so they generally inter-
marry among themselves, the gentlemen seldom going out of
the county for a wife, or the ladies for a husband, from whence
they say, that proverb upon them was rais'd (viz.) That all the
Cornish gentlemen are cousins.

On the hills north of Liskard, and in the way between Liskard
and Lanceston, there are many tinn mines, and as they told
us some of the richest veins of that metal are found there, that
are in the whole county; the metal when cast at the biowing
houses into blocks, being as above, carry'd to Liskard to be :oin'd.

From Liskard, in our course west, we are necessarily carry'd
to the sea coast, because of the river Fowey, or Fowath, which
empties it self into the sea, at a very large mouth, and hereby
this river rising in the middle of the breadth of the county, and
running south, and the river Camel rising not far from it, and
running north, with a like large channel, the land from Bodmyn
to the western part of the county is almost made an island, and
in a manner cut off from the eastern part, the peninsula, or
neck of land between, being not above twelve miles over.

On this south side we come to Foy, or Fowey, an antient
town, and formerly very large; nay, not large only, but powerful
and potent, for the Foyens, as they were then call'd, were able
to fit out large fleets, not only for merchant's ships, but even
of men of war; and with these not only fought with, but several
times vanquished, and routed the squadron of the Cinque Port
men, who in those days were thought very powerful.

Mr. Cambden observes, that the town of Foy quarters some
part of the arms of every one of those Cinque Ports with theii
own; intimating, that they had at several times trampled over
them all; certain it is, they did often beat them, and took their
ships, and brought them as good prizes into their haven of Foy,
and carry'd it so high, that they fitted out their fleets against
the French, and took several of their men of war when they
were at war with England, and enrich'd their town by the spoil
of their enemies.

Edward IV. favoured them much, and because the French
threatened them, to come up their river with a powerful navy
to burn their town, he caus'd two forts to be built at the publick
charge, for security of the town and river, which forts at least
some show of them remain there still, but the same King Edward
was some time after so disgusted at the townsmen for officiously
falling upon the French after a truce was made, and proclaimed,
that he effectually disann'd them, took away their whole fleet,

CORNWALL 235

ships, tackle, apparel and furniture; and since that time we
do not read of any of their naval exploits, nor that they ever
recover'd, or attempted to recover their strength at sea: How-
ever, Foy,^ at this time, is a very fair town, it lyes extended on
the east side of the river for above a mile, the buildings fair;
and there are a great many flourishing merchants in it, who have
a great share in the fishing trade, especially for pilchards, of
which they take a great quantity here abouts. In this town, is
also a coinage for the TINN, of which a great quantity is dug
up in the country, north and west of the town.

The river Fowey, which is very broad and deep here, was
formerly navigable by ships of good burthen as high as Lest-
withiel an antient, and once a flourishing, but now a decayed
town, and as to trade and navigation quite destitute, which
is occasioned by the river being fill'd up with sands, which
some say, the tides drive up in stormy weather from the sea;
others say 'tis by sands wash'd from the lead mines in the hills;
the last of which, (by the way) I take to be a mistake, the
sand from the hills being not of quantity sufficient to fill up
the channel of a navigable river, and if it had, might easily
have been stopped by the towns people from falling into the
river; but that the sea has choak'd up the river with sand, is
not only probable but true, and there are other rivers which
suffer in the like manner in this same country.

This town of Lestwithiel, retains however several advantages,
which support its figure, as first, that it is one of the Coinage
Towns, as I call them, or Stannary Towns, as others call them.
(2.) The common gaol for the whole Stannary is here, as are also
the county courts for the whole county of Cornwall.

There is a mock cavalcade kept up at this town, which is
very remarkable, the particulars, as they are related by
Mr. Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, take as follows.

Upon little Easter Sunday, the free-holders of this town and
mannour by themselves, or their deputies, did there assemble:
Amongst whom, one (as it fell to his lot by turn) bravely apparall'd,
gallantly mounted, with a crown on his head, a scepter in his hand,
and a sword borne before him, and dutifully attended by all the
rest also on horseback, rode thro* the principal street to the church :
The curate in his best beseen solemnly received him at the church-
yard stile, and conducted him to hear divine service: After which,
he repaired with the same pomp, to a house provided for that
purpose, made a feast to his attendants, kept the tables-end himself,
and was served with kneeling assay, and all other rights due to the
estate of a prince: With which dinner, the ceremony ended, and

236 DEFOE'S TOUR

every man returned home again. The pedigree of this usage is
deriv'd from so many descents of ages that the cause and author
out-reach the remembrance: Howbeit, these circumstances afford
a conjecture, that it should betoken royalties appertaining to the
honour of Comwal.

Behind Foye, and nearer to the coast at the mouth of a small
river, which some call Lowe, tho* without any authority, there
stand two towns opposite to one another, bearing the name of
the river Loe, that is to say, distinguished by the addition of
East Loe, and West Loe. These are both good trading towns,
and especially fishing towns and which is very particular, are
like Weymouth and Melcomb, in Dorsetshire, seperated only
by the creek, or river; and yet each of them send members to
Parliaments: These towns are joyn'd together by a very beautiful
and stately stone bridge having fifteen arches.

East Loo, was the antienter corporation of the two, and for
some ages ago the greater and more considerable town; but
now they tell us West Loo is the richest, and has the most ships
belonging to it: Were they put together, they would make a
very handsome seaport town. They have a great fishing trade
here, as well for supply of the country, as for merchandize, and
the towns are not dispisable; but as to sending four members
to the British Parliament, which is as many as the city of London
chooses, that I confess seems a little scandalous, but to who, is
none of my business to enquire.

Passing from hence, and ferrying over Foy river, or the
river Foweth, call it as ye please, we come into a large country
without many towns in it of note, but very well furnished with
gentlemen's seats, and a little higher up with tinn works.

The sea making several deep bays here, they who travel by
land are obliged to go higher into the country to pass above the
water, especially at Trewardreth Bay, which lyes very broad,
above ten miles within the country, which passing at Trewar-
dreth, a town of no great note, tho' the bay takes its name
from it, the next inlet of the sea, is the famous firth, or inlet,
calTd Falmouth Haven. It is certainly next to Milford Haven
in South Wales, the fairest and best road for shipping that is
in the whole isle of Britain, when there be considered the depth
of water for above twenty miles within land; the safety of
riding, sheltered from all kind of winds or storms, the good
anchorage, and the many creeks, all navigable, where ships may
run in and be safe, so that the like is no where to be found.

There are six or seven very considerable places upon this

CORNWALL 237

haven, and the rivers from it, (viz.) Grampound, Tregony,
Truro, Penryn, Falmouth, St. Mawes, and Pendennis. The three
first of these send members to Parliament, the town of Fal-
mouth, as big as all the three, and richer than ten of them
sends none, which imports no more than this, that Falmouth
it self is not of so great antiquity, as to its rising, as those other
towns are; and yet the whole haven takes its name from Fal-
mouth too, unless as some think the town took its name from
the haven, which however they give no authority to suggest.

St. Mawes and Pendennis are two fortifications placed at the
points, or enterance of this haven, opposite to one another, tho'
not with a communication, or view; they are very strong; the
first principally by sea, having a good plat form of guns, pointing
thwart the channel, and planted on a level with the water; but
Pendennis Castle is strong by land as well as by water, is regu-
larly fortified, has good out works, and generally a strong
garrison; St. Mawes, otherwise calTd St. Mary's has a town
annex'd to the castle, and is a borough, sending members to
the Parliament. Pendennis is a meer fortress, tho' there are
some habitations in it too, and some at a small distance near the
sea side, but not of any great consideration.

The town of Falmouth is by much the richest, and best
trading town in this county, tho' not so antient as its neighbour
town of Truro; and indeed, is in some things oblig'd to acknow-
ledge the seigniorty; Namely, that in the corporation of Truro,
the person who they choose to be their mayor of Truro, is also
mayor of Falmouth of course. How the jurisdiction is manag'd,
is an account too long for this place; the Truro men also receive
several duties collected in Falmouth, particularly wharfage for
the merchandizes landed, or shipp'd off; but let these advantages
be what they will, the town of Falmouth has gotten the trade,
at least the best part of it from the other, which is chiefly owing
to the situation, for that Falmouth lying upon the sea, but
within the entrance, ships of the greatest burthen^ come up to
the very keys, and the whole royal navy might ride safely in
the road, whereas the town of Truro lying far within, and at
the mouth of two fresh rivers, is not navigable for vessels of
above 150 tons, or thereabouts.

Some have suggested that the original of Falmouth, was the
having so large a key, and so good a depth of water at it. The
merchants of Truro formerly us'd it for the place of lading
and unlading their ships, as the merchants of Exceter did at
Topsham, and this is the more probable in that, as above, the

238 DEFOE'S TOUR

wharfage of those landing places is still the property of the
corporation of Truro.

But let this be as it will, the trade is now in a manner wholly
gone to Faimouth, the trade at Truro, being now chiefly if not
only for shipping off of block TINN and copper oar, the latter
being lately found in large quantities in some of the mountains
between Truro, and St. Michaels, and which is much improv'd
since the several mills are erected at Bristol, and other parts,
for the manufactures of battery ware or, as 'tis calTd, brass,
which is made out of English copper, most of it dug in these
parts; the oar it self also being found very rich and good.

Faimouth is well built, has abundance of shipping belonging
to it, is full of rich merchants, and has a flourishing and en-
creasing trade. I say encreasing, because by the late setting up
the English packets between this port and Lisbon, there is a
new commerce between Portugal and this town, carried on to a
very great value.

It is true, part of this trade was founded in a clandestine
commerce, carried on by the said packets at Lisbon, where
being the king's ships, and claiming the privilege of not being
searched, or visited by the custom-house officers, they found
means to carry off great quantities of British manufactures,
which they sold on board to the Portuguese merchants, and they
convey'd them on shoar, as 'tis supposed without paying custom.

But the government there, getting intelligence of it, and
complaint being made in England also, where it was found to
be very prejudicial to the fair merchant, that trade has been
effectually stopp'd, but the Faimouth merchants having by
this means gotten a taste of the Portuguese trade, have main-
tain'd it ever since in ships of their own: These packets bring
over such vast quantities of gold in specie, either in moidores,
which is the Portugal coin, or in bars of gold, that I am very
credibly inform'd the carryer from Faimouth, brought by land
from thence to London, at one time, in the month of January,
1722, or near it, eighty thousand moidores in gold, which came
from Lisbon in the pacquet boats, for account of the merchants at
Lond >n, and that it was attended with a guard of 12 horsemen well
arm'd, for which the said carryer had half per cent for his hazard.

This is a specimen of the Portugal trade, and how considerable
it is in it self, as well as how advantageous to England, but as
that is not to the present case, I proceed; the custom-house for
all the towns in this port, and the head collector is establish'd at
this town, where the duties, including the other ports is very

CORNWALL 239

considerable: Here is also a very great fishing for pilchards, and
the merchants for Falmouth have the chief stroke in that
gainful trade.

Truro is however a very considerable town too; it stands up
the water north and by east from Falmouth in the utmost
extended branch of the haven, in the middle, between the
conflux of two rivers, which tho* not of any long course, have
a very good appearance for a port, and make a large wharf
between them in the front of the town; and the water here
makes a good port for small ships, tho j it be at the influx, but
not for ships of burthen. This is the particular town where the
lord warden of the Stannaries always holds his famous Parlia-
ment of Miners, and for stamping of TINN. The town is well
built, but shews that it has been much fuller, both of houses and
inhabitants, than it is now; nor will it probably ever rise, while
the town of Falmouth stands where it does, and while the trade
is settled in it, as it is. There are at least three churches in it, but
no Dissenter's meeting house, that I could hear of.

Tregony, is upon the same water north east from Falmouth,
distance about sixteen miles from it, but is a town of very little
trade, nor indeed have any of the towns so far within the shoar,
notwithstanding the benefit of the water any considerable trade
but what is carried on under the merchants of Falmouth, or
Truro; the chief thing that is to be said of this town, is, that it
sends members to Parliament, as does also

Grandpound, a market-town, and burro* about 4 miles farther
up the water. This place indeed has a claim to antiquity, and is
an appendix to the Dutchy of Cornwall, of which it holds at a
fee farm rent, and pays to the Prince of Wales, as duke,
io/. us. id. per annum; it has no parish church, but only a
chappel of ease to an adjacent parish.

Penryn, is up the same branch of the haven, as Falmouth, but
stands four miles higher towards the west, yet ships come to it
of as great a size, as can come to Truro it self; it is a very
pleasant agreeable town, and for that reason has many merchants
in it, who would perhaps otherwise live at Falmouth. The chief
commerce of these towns, as to their sea affairs, is the pilchards,
and Newfoundland fishing, which is very profitable to them
all; it had formerly a conventual church, with a chantry, and a
religious house, a eel to Kirton, but they are all demolished,
and scarce the ruins of them distinguishable enough to know
one part from another.

Quiting Falmouth Haven from Penryn west, we came to

*j 820

240 DEFOE'S TOUR

Helsten, about 7 miles, and stands upon the little river Cober,
which however admits the sea so into its bosom as to make a
tolerable good harbour for ships a little below the town. It is
the fifth town, allow'd for the coining TINN, and several of
the ships calTd "tinn" ships are loaden here.

This town is large and populous, and has four spacious streets,
a handsome church, and a good trade: This town also sends
members to Parliament. Beyond this is a market town tho'
of no resort for trade, calTd Market Jew, it lyes indeed on the
sea-side, but has no harbour or safe road for shipping.

At Helford is a small, but good harbour between Falmouth
and this port, where many times the TINN ships go in to load
for London; also here are a good number of fishing vessels for
the pilchard trade, and abundance of skilful fishermen: It was
from this town that in the great storm, which happened, Nov.
27, 1703, a ship loaden with tinn, was blown out to sea, and
driven to the Isle of Wight, in seven hours, having on board
only one man, and two boys; the story is as follows, (viz.)

The beginning of the storm, there lay a ship laden with tinn, in
Helford Haven, about two leagues and a half west of Falmouth.
The tinn was taken on board at a place calTd Guague Wharf, five
or six miles up the river, and the vessel was come down to Helford,
in order to pursue her voyage to London.

About 8 a-clpck in the evening the commander, whose name was
Anthony Jenkins, went on board with his mate to see that every
thing was safe, and to give orders, but went both on shear again,
leaving only a man, and two boys on board, not apprehending any
danger, they being in safe harbour; however, he ordered them, that
if it should blow hard, they should carry out the small bower anchor,
and so to moor the ship by two anchors, and then giving what other
orders he thought to be needful, he went ashore, as above.

About 9 o'clock, the wind beginning to blow harder, they carryed
out the anchor according to the master's order; but the wind
encreasing about 10, the ship began to drive, so they carry'd out
their best bower, which having a good new cable, brought the ship
up. The storm still encreasing they let go the kedge anchor; so that
they then rode by four anchors a head, which were all they had.

But between n and 12 o'clock, the wind came about west and
by south, and blew in so violent and terrible a manner, that tho'
they rid under the lee of a high shore, yet the ship was driven from
all her anchors, and about midnight drove quite out of the harbour
(the opening of the harbour lying due east and west) into the open sea,
the men having neither anchor or cable, or boat to help themselves.

In this dreadful condition, they driving, I say, out of the harbour:
Their first and chief care was to go clear of the rocks, which lye on
either side the harbour's mouth, and which they perform' d pretty
well; then, seeing no remedy, they consulted what to do next. They
cou'd carry no sail at first, no not a knot, nor do any thing but run

CORNWALL 241

away afore it: The only thing they had to think on, was to keep
her out at sea as far as they could, for fear of a point of land, calTd
The Dead Man's Head, which lyes to the eastward of Falmouth
Haven, and then if they could escape the land, thought to run in
for Plymouth, next morning, so if possible, to save their lives.

In *M-q frighted condition they drove away at a prodigious rate,
having sometimes the bonnet of their foresail a little out, but the
yard lower* d almost to the deck; sometimes the ship almost under
water, and sometimes above, keeping still in the offing, for fear of
the land, till they might see daylight; but when the day brake they
found they were to think no more of Plymouth, for they were far
enough beyond it, and the first land they made was Peverel Point,
being the southernmost land of the Isle of Purbeck, in Dorsetshire,
and a little to the westward of the Isle of Wight; so that now they
were in a terrible consternation, and driving still at a prodigious
rate, by seven a clock they found themselves broad side of the
Isle of Wight.

Here they consulted again what to do to save their lives; one of
the boys was for running her into the Downs, but the man objected,
that having no anchor or cable, nor boat to go on shore with, and
the storm blowing off shore, in tie Downs, they should be inevitably
blown off, and lost upon the unfortunate Goodwin, which it seems
the man had been on once before, and narrowly escaped.

Now came the last consultation for their lives; the other of the
boys said, he had been in a certain creek in the Isle of Wight, where
between the rocks he knew there was room to run the ship in, and
at least to save their lives, and that he saw the place just that
moment; so he desir'd the man to let him have the helm, and he
would do his best, and venture it. The man gave him the helm, and
he stood directly in among the rocks, the people standing on the
shore, thinking they were mad, and that they would in a few
minutes be dashed in a thousand pieces.

But when they came nearer, and the people found they steer'd
as if they knew the place, they made signals to them to direct them,
as well as they could, and the young bold fellow run her into a small
cove, where she stuck fast, as it were, between the rocks on both
sides, there being but just room enough for the breadth of the ship;
the ship indeed giving two or three knocks stav'd, and sunk, but
the man and the two youths jump't a shore, and were safe, and the
lading being tinn was afterwards secur'd. N.B. The merchants very
well rewarded the three sailors, especially the lad that ran her into
that place.

Pensance is the farthest town of any note west, being 254
miles from London, and within about ten miles of the promon-
tory, call'd the Lands End; so that this promontory is from
London 264 miles, or thereabouts: This town of Pensance is
a place of good business, well built and populous, has a good
trade, and a great many ships belonging to it, notwithstanding
it is so remote. Here are also a great many good families of
gentlemen, tho' in this utmost angle of the nation; and, which

242 DEFOE'S TOUR

is yet more strange, the veins of lead, tinn, and copper oar, are
said to be seen, even to the utmost extent of land at low water
mark, and in the very sea; so rich, so valuable a treasure is
contain'd in these parts of Great Britain, tho' they are supposed
to be so poor, because so very remote from London, which is
the center of our wealth.

Between this town and St. Burien, a town midway between
it and the Land's End, stands a circle of great stones, not unlike
those at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, with one bigger than the rest
in the middle; they stand about 12 foot asunder, but have no
inscription, neither does tradition offer to leave any part of
their history upon record; as whether it was a trophy, or a
monument of burial, or an altar for worship, or what else;
so that all that can be learn'd of them, is, That here they are:
The parish where they stand is calTd Boscawone, from whence the
ancient and honourable family of Boscawen derive their names.

Near Pensance, but open to the sea, is that gulph they call
Mounts Bay, nam'd so from a high hill standing in the water,
which they call St. Michael's Mount; the seamen call it only,
the Cornish Mount; It has been fortify'd, tho 7 the situation of it
makes it so difficult of access, that like the Bass in Scotland,
there needs no fortification; like the Bass too, it was once made
a prison for prisoners of State, but now it is wholly neglected;
there is a very good road here for shipping, which makes the
town of Pensance be a pkce of good resort.

A little up in the county towards the north west is Godolchan,
which tho' a hill, rather than a town, gives name to the noble
and ancient family of Godolphin; and nearer on the northern
coast is Royalton, which since the late Sydney Godolphin, Esq;
a younger brother of the family, was created Earl of Godolphin,
gave title of lord to his eldest son, who was calTd Lord Royalton
during the life of his father. This place also is infinitely rich in
tinn mines.

I am now at my journey's end; As to the islands of Scilly,
which lye beyond the Land's End, I shall say something of them
presently: I must now return sur mes pas, as the French call it;
tho 3 not literally so, for I shall not come back the same way
I went; but as I have coasted the south shore to the Land's
End, I shall come back by the north coast, and my observations
in my return will furnish very well materials for a fourth letter.

lam, &c,

END OF TTTTC "jrMlKlP LETTER

APPENDIX TO LETTER III

I HAVE ended this account at the utmost extent of the island
of Great Britain west, without visiting those excressences of
the island, as I think I may call them, (viz.) the rocks of Scilly,
of which, what is most famous, is their infamy, or reproach;
Namely, how many good ships are, almost continually dash'd in
pieces there, and how many brave lives lost, in spight of the
'mariners best skill, or the light-houses, and other sea-marks
best notice.

These islands lye so in the middle between the two vast
openings of the north and south narrow seas, or as the sailors
call them, the Bristol Channel, and The Channel, (so calTd by
way of eminence) that it cannot, or perhaps never will be avoided,
but that several ships in the dark of the night, and in stress of
weather may by being out in their reckonings, or other unavoid-
able accidents mistake, and if they do, they are sure, as the
sailors call it, to run bump a shore upon Scilly, where they find
no quarter among the breakers, but are beat to pieces, without
any possibility of escape.

One can hardly mention the Bishop and his Clerks, as they are
calTd, or the rocks of Scilly, without letting fall a tear to the
memory of Sir Cloudesly Shovel, and all the gallant spirits that
were with him at one blow, and without a moments warning
dash'd into a state of immortality; the admiral with three men
of war, and all their men (running upon these rocks, right afore
the wind, and in a dark night) being lost there, and not a man
sav'd. But all our annals and histories are full of this, so I need
say no more.

They tell us of eleven sail of merchant ships homeward-bound,
and richly laden from the southward, who had the like fate,
in the same place, a great many years ago; and that some of
them coming from Spain, and having a great quantity of
bullion, or pieces of eight on board, the money frequently
drives on shore still, and that in good quantities, especially
after stormy weather.

This may be the reason why, as we observed during our short
243

244 DEFOE'S TOUR

stay here, several mornings after, it had blown something hard
in the night, the sands were covered with country people running
too and fro' to see if the sea had cast up any thing of value.
This the seamen call "going a shoring"; and it seems they do
often find good purchase: Sometimes also dead bodies are cast
up here, the consequence of shipwrecks among those fatal rocks
and islands; as also broken pieces of ships, casks, chests, and
almost every thing that will float, or roll on shore by the surges
of the sea.

Nor is it seldom that the voracious country people scuffle and
fight about the right to what they find, and that in a desperate
manner, so that this part of Cornwall may truly be said to be
inhabited by a fierce and ravenous people; for they are so
greedy, and eager for the prey, that they are charg'd with
strange, bloody, and cruel dealings, even sometimes with one-
another; but especially with poor distress'd seamen when they
come on shore by force of a tempest, and seek help for their
lives, and where they find the rocks themselves not more
merciless than the people who range about them for their prey.
Here also, as a farther testimony of the immense riches which
have been lost at several times upon this coast, we found several
engineers, and projectors; some with one sort of diving engine,
and some with another; some claiming such a wreck, and some
such and such others; where they alledg'd, they were assur'd
there were great quantities of money; and strange unprecedented
ways were us'd by them to come at it; Some, I say, with one
kind of engine, and some another; and tho' we thought several
of them very strange impracticable methods, yet, I was assur'd
by the country people, that they had done wonders with them
under water, and that some of them had taken up things of
great weight, and in a great depth of water; others had split
open the wrecks they had found, in a manner one would have
thought not possible to be done, so far under water, and had
taken out things from the very holds of the ships; but we
could not learn, that they had come at any pieces of eight,
which was the thing they seem'd most to aim at, and depend
upon; at least they had not found any great quantity, as they
said they expected.

However, we left them as busy as we found them, and far

from being discouraged; and if half the golden mountains, or

silver mountains either, which they promise themselves, should

appear, they will be very well paid for their labour.

From the tops of the hills, on this extremity of the land, you

CORNWALL 245

may see out into that they call the Chops of the Channel, which,
as it is the greatest inlet of commerce, and the most frequented
by merchant-ships of any place in the world; so one seldom looks
out to seaward, but something new presents; that is to say, of
ships passing, or repassing, either on the great or lesser channel.

Upon a former accidental journey into this part of the country,
during the war with France, it was with a mixture of pleasure
and horror that we saw from the hills at the Lizard, which
is the southermost point of this land, an obstinate fight between
three French-men of war, and two English, with a privateer,
and three merchant-ships in their company; the English had
the misfortune, not only to be fewer ships of war in number,
but of less force; so that while the two biggest French ships
engaged the English, the third in the mean time took the two
merchant-ships, and went off with them; as to the piccaropn,
or privateer, she was able to do little in the matter, not daring
to come so near the men of war, as to take a broadside, which
her thin sides would not have been able to bear, but would
have sent her to the bottom at once; so that the English men
of war had no assistance from her, nor could she prevent the
taking the two merchant-ships; yet we observ'd that the
English captains managed their fight so well, and their seamen
behav'd so briskly, that in about three hours both the French-
men stood off, and being sufficiently bang'd, let us see that they
had no more stomach to fight; after which the English, having
damage enough too no doubt, stood away to the eastward, as
we supposed, to refit.

This point of the Lizard, which runs out to the southward,
and the other promontory mentioned above, make the two
angles, or horns, as they are calTd, from whence 'tis suppos'd
this county received its first name of Cornwall, or as Mr. Cambden
says, Cornulia in the Latin, and in the British Kernou, as running
out in two vastly extended horns; and indeed it seems, as if
nature had form'd this situation for the direction of mariners,
as foreknowing of what importance it should be, and how in
future ages these seas should be thus throng'd with merchant
ships, the protection of whose wealth, and the safety of the
people navigating them, was so much her early care, that she
stretched out the land so very many ways, and extended the
points and promontories so far, and in so many different places
into the sea, that the land might be more easily discover'd at
a due distance, which way soever the ships should come.

Nor is the Lizard Point less useful (tho j not so far west) than

246 DEFOE'S TOUR

the other, which is more properly call'd the Land's End; but if
we may credit our mariners, it is more frequently, first dis-
co ver'd from the sea; for as our mariners knowing by the
soundings when they are in the mouth of the Channel, do then
most naturally stand to the southward, to avoid mistaking the
Channel, and to shun the Severn Sea, or Bristol Channel, but
still more to avoid running upon Scilly, and the rocks about it,
as is observ'd before: I say, as they carefully keep to the south-
ward, till they think they are fair with the Channel, and then
stand to the northward again, or north east, to make the land;
this is the reason why the Lizard is generally speaking, the first
land they make, and not the Land's End.

Then having made the Lizard, they either (first) run in for
Falmouth, which is the next port, if they are taken short with
easterly winds, or are in want of provisions and refreshment,
or have any thing out of order, so that they care not to keep the
sea; or (2dly) stand away for the Ram Head, and Plymouth-
Sound, or (sdly) keep an offing to run up the Channel.

So that the Lizard is the general guide, and of more use in
these cases than the other point, and is therefore the land
which the ships choose to make first, for then also they are
sure that they are past Scilly, and all the dangers of that part
of the island.

Nature has fortify'd this part of the island of Britain in a
strange manner, and so as is worth a traveller's observation,
as if she knew the force and violence of the mighty ocean, which
beats upon it, and which indeed, if the land was not made firm
in proportion, could not withstand, but would have been wash'd
away long ago.

First, there are the islands of t Scilly, and the rocks about
them, these are plac'd like outworks to resist the first assaults
of this enemy, and so break the force of it; as the piles, or
starlings (as they are call'd) are plac'd before the solid stone-
work of London-Bridge, to fence off the force, either of the
water, or ice, or any thing else that might be dangerous to
the work.

Then there are a vast number of sunk rocks, (so the seamen
call them,) besides such as are visible, and above water; which
gradually lessen the quantity of water, that would otherwise
lye with an infinite weight and force upon the land; 'tis observ'd,
that these rocks lye under water for a great way off into the
sea on every side the said two horns or points of land; so breaking
the force of the water, and as above lessening the weight of it.

CORNWALL 247

But besides this, the whole terra firma, or body of the land,
which makes this part of the isle of Britain, seems to be one
solid rock, as if it was formed by Nature to resist the other-
wise irresistible power of the ocean; and indeed if one was to
observe with what fury the sea comes on sometimes against the
shore here, especially at the Lizard Point, where there are but
few, if any outworks, (as I call them) to resist it; How high the
waves come rowling forward, storming on the neck of one
another; particularly when the wind blows off sea, one would
wonder, that even the strongest rocks themselves should be
able to resist, and repel them. But, as I said, the country seems
to be as it were one great body of stone, and prepared so on
purpose.

And yet, as if all this was not enough, Nature has provided
another strong fence, and that is, that these vast rocks are, as
it were, cemented together by the solid and weighty oar of
TINN and copper, especially the last, which is plentifully found
upon the very outmost edge of the land, and with which the
stones may be said to be spder'd together, lest the force of the
sea should separate and disjoynt them, and so break in upon
these fortifications of the island, to destroy its chief security.

This is certain, that there is a more than ordinary quantity
of tinn, copper, and lead also, placed by the Great Director
of nature in these very remote angles and, as I have said above,
the oar is found upon the very surface of the rocks a good way
into the sea, and that it does not only lye, as it were, upon, or
between the stones among the earth, which in that case might
be washed from it by the sea, but that it is even blended or
mix'd in with the stones themselves, that the stones must be
split into pieces to come at it; by this mixture the rocks are
made infinitely weighty and solid, and thereby still the more
qualified to repel the force of the sea.

Upon this remote part of the island we saw great numbers
of that famous kind of crows, which is known by the name of
the Cornish cough, or chough, so the country people call them:
They are the same kind, which are found in Switzerland among
the Alps, and which Pliny pretended, were peculiar to those
mountains, and calls the Pyrrhocorax; the body is black, the
legs, feet, and bill of a deep yellow, almost to a red; I could
not find that it was affected for any good quality it had, nor is
the flesh good to eat, for it feeds much on fish and carrion;
it is counted little better than a kite, for it is of ravenous quality,
and is very mischievous; it will steal and carry away any thing

248 DEFOE'S TOUR

it finds about the house, that is not too heavy, tho' not fit for
its food; as knives, forks, spoons and linnen cloths, or what-
ever it can fly away with, sometimes they say it has stolen
bits of firebrands, or lighted candles, and lodged them in the
stacks of corn, and the thatch of barns and houses, and set
them on fire; but this I only had by oral tradition.

I might take up many sheets in describing the valuable
curiosities of this little Cherosonese, or neck land, calTd the
Land's End, in which there lyes an immense treasure, and
many things worth notice, I mean besides those to be found
upon the surface: But I am too near the end of this letter.
If I have opportunity, I shall take notice of some part of what
I omit here, in my return by the northern shore of the county.

THE END OF THE THIRD LETTER

ADDENDA TO THE FIRST VOLUME

SINCE the closing this volume there are several great and mag-
nificent buildings begun to be erected, within the circuit of
these letters, which however, not being finished, cannot now be
fully described, (viz.)

1. Sir Gregory Page's house on Black-Heath, which they
tell us, will be a more magnificent work than any private
gentleman's seat in this part of Great-Britain.

2. The Lord Onslow's seat, re-edifying near Guildford.

3. Sir John Williams's seat all new, at Stoke, near Nayland-
Bridge, in Suffolk.

4. A new square, almost a new town, at the east-side of
Greenwich, on the Heath, in the way to Charleton.

5. And, lastly, the famous addition, or square begun at
King's College Chapel in Cambridge, of which the foundation
is but even now lay'd.

THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE
SECOND VOLUME

THE reception which the first part of this work has met with,
has not been so mean as to discourage the performance of the
second volume, nor to slacken the diligence in our endeavours
to perform it well : It is not an easy thing to travel over a whole
kingdom, and in so critical a manner too, as will enable the
traveller to give an account of things fit for the use of those
that shall come after him.

To describe a country by other mens accounts of it, would
soon expose the writer to a discovery of the fraud; and to
describe it by survey, requires a preparation too great for any
thing but a publick purse, and persons appointed by authority;
This was the case in Mr. Cambden's travelling, by which means
he had access to every curiosity, publick and private. But to
describe a country by way of journey, in a private capacity,
as has been the case here, though it requires a particular appli-
cation, to what may be learn'd from due enquiry and from
conversation, yet it admits not the observer to dwell upon
every nicety, to measure the distances, and determine exactly
the scite, the dimensions, or the extent of places, or read the
histories of them. But it is giving an account by way of essay,
or, as the moderns call it, by memoirs of the present state of
things, in a familiar manner.

This we have perform'd in the best manner we could, and
have taken care to have it come fully up to our proposals. We
are not to boast of the performance, but are content to have it
compar'd with any that have gone before it; if it may be done
with impartiality and a fair design of determining according
to truth: Our manner is plain, and suited to the nature of
familiar letters; our relations have no blusters, no rhodomon-
tadoes of our own abilities; but we keep close to the first design
of giving, as near as possible, such an account of things, as may
entertain the reader, and give him a view of our country, such
as may tempt him to travel over it himself, in which case it
will be not a little assisting to him, or qualify him to discourse

252 THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE

of it, as one that had a tolerable knowledge of it, tho' he stay'd
at home.

As we observ'd in the first volume, and frequently in this,
there will always be something new, for those that come after;
and if an account of Great Britain was to be written every
year, there would be something found out, which was overlook'd
before, or something to describe, which had its birth since the
former accounts: New foundations are always laying, new
buildings always raising, highways repairing, churches and
publick buildings erecting, fires and other calamities happening,
fortunes of families taking different turns, new trades are
every day erected, new projects enterpriz'd, new designs laid;
so that as long as England is a trading, improving nation, no
perfect description either of the place, the people, or the con-
ditions and state of things can be given.

For example; since the finishing of the last volume, the
South Sea Company have engaged in the Greenland Fishery,
and have fitted out a fleet of twelve great ships, which they
have built new from the stocks, and have made that great
wet-dock between Deptford and Redriff, the center of all
that commerce and the buildings, the works, and the manage-
ment, of that they call their cookery; that is, the boyling their
blubber into oyL 'Tis well if they do not make stink enough,
and gain too little, especially to the neighbouring places of
Deptford and Redriff.

Another article has happened, even between the writing the
Appendix to this work, and this Preface; namely, That an
Act of Parliament is passing, and will soon, we suppose, be
pass'd for making the river Nyne navigable from Peterborough
to Northampton, a work which will be of infinite advantage to
the country, because the river pierces so far into the heart of
the island, where there is no navigation for between twenty or
thirty miles any way: Tis true, this may be long in doing, it
being above fifty miles in length by the river; and they had
once before an Act granted for the same thing; yet, 'tis said,
they intend now to go about it in good earnest, and that they
will be content with performing it piece-meal, that is to say,
some and some, that they may see how practicable it may be,
and how well it will turn to account.

It is not designed to make apologies here for the performance;
there were so few mistakes in the former volume, that were
of any importance, and those few so easily rectify'd, that tho'
this circuit is much greater, and perhaps the variety the greatest

TO HIS SECOND VOLUME 253

of all the three, yet 'tis hop'd there will be so few exceptions,
as they may be easily accounted for hereafter.

The saying that Sudbury was not a corporation, when really
it was so; that Chelmsford was the first and chief plantation of
hops in Essex, when it seems Castle Henningham claims pre-
cedence: The debate whether Dunwich has now any trade
left, or, whether it be quite devour'd of the sea; or whether
Woodbridge or Ipswich are the chief ports for exporting Suffolk
butter; are all so easily to be rectify'd by any reader, tho' they
are among the chief mistakes of the last volume, that we cannot
but hope the candor of the reader will make allowances for it,
if such should unavoidably have slipt observation, in this part
also, tho' we hope not.

We have now finish'd the whole south of Trent, which being
the most populous part of the country, and infinitely fuller of
great towns, of people, and of trade, has also the greatest variety
of incidents in its passing over.

But the northern part being also to include Scotland, and
being the greatest in extent, will have its beauties, we can
assure you; and tho' the country may in some respects, be
called barren, the history of it will not be so.

Scotland will have justice done it, without the flattery and
ridiculous encomiums which have already so much exposed two
Scotish writers upon that subject. 1

The great and once wasted countries of Northumberland,
Cumberland, and Durham, shall be truly and not slightly
described, with their real improvements, without loading our
work with fragments of antiquity, and dressing up the wilds of
the borders as a paradise, which are indeed but a wilderness.

In the mean time we recommend our performance to the
candor of the reader, and whatever may be objected, we doubt
not to have obtained the just reputation of having written with
impartiality and with truth.

i Scotland may follow in 3. latex Everyman volume.

LETTER IV

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE NORTH SHORE OF THE
COUNTIES OF CORNWALL, AND DEVON, AND SOME PARTS OF
SOMERSETSHIRE, WILTSHIRE, DORSETSHIRE, GLOUCESTER-
SHIRE, BUCKINGHAMSHIRE AND BERKSHIRE

SIR, My last letter ended the account of my travels, where
Nature ended her account, when she meeted out the island,
and where she fix'd the utmost western bounds of Britain; and,
being resolved to see the very extremity of it, I set my foot
into the sea, as it were, beyond the farthest inch of dry land
west, as I had done before near the town of Dover, at the foot
of the rocks of the South-Foreland in Kent, which, I think, is
the farthest point east in a line; And as I had done, also, at
Leostoff in Suffolk, which is another promontory on the eastern
coast, and is reckoned the farthest land eastward of the island
in general: Likewise, I had used the same ceremony at Selsy
near Chichester, which I take to be the farthest land south,
except at Portland only, which, as it is not really an island,
may be called, the farthest land south; so, in its place, I shall
give you an account of the same curiosity at John a Grot's
House in Caithness, the farthest piece of ground in Great
Britain, north.

I had once, indeed, resolved to have coasted the whole circuit
of Britain by sea, as 'tis said, Agricola the Roman general, did;
and in this voyage I would have gone about every promontory,
and into the bottom of every bay, and had provided myself
a good yacht, and an able commander for that purpose; but
I found it would be too hazardous an undertaking for any man
to justify himself in the doing it upon the meer foundation of
curiosity, and having no other business at all; so I gave it over.

There was another difficulty also, upon which my navigator,
or commander, as I called him, who was an old experienced
seaman, dissuaded me from the undertaking; and that was, the
necessity of getting pilots to every part of the coast, and to
every port, river, and creek, and the danger of not getting
them: The necessity was plain; For that, as I proposed to keep
all the way near, or under the shore, to enter into all the bays,

2 54

CORNWALL 255

and mouths of rivers, and creeks, as above; i. It would be
impracticable to find any single man that knew so perfectly
the whole coast, as to venture in without pilots. 2. Pilots would
not always be found, especially on the north and west coasts
of Scotland; so I laid it aside, I say, as a hopeless, and too
dangerous adventure, and satisfied myself, to make the circuit
very near as perfect by land, which I have done with much less
hazard, though with much more pains and expence; the fruit
of which, you have, in part, communicated in these letters.

I now turned about to the east, and as, when I went west,
I kept to the southern coast of this long county of Cornwall,
and of Devonshire also, so in going east, I shall keep the north-
shore on board. The first place, of any note, we came to, is
St. Ives, a pretty good town, and grown rich by the fishing-
trade; it is situated on the west side of a deep bay, called
St. Ives Bay, from the name of the town. This bay is opposite,
on the land side, to Mount's Bay, which I spoke of in my last,
in my account of Pensance.

It is a very pleasant view we have at Madern Hills, and the
plain by them, in the way from the Land's-End to St. Ives,
where, at one sight, there is a prospect of the ocean at the
Land's-End west; of the British Channel at Mount's Bay south;
and the Bristol Channel, or Severn Sea, north; At St. Ives, the
land between the two bays being not above four or five miles
over, is so situated, that upon the hill, neither of the two seas
are above three miles off, and very plain to be seen; and also,
in a clear day, the islands of Scilly, though above thirty miles off.

From this town and port of St. Ives, we have no town of any
note on the coast; no, not a market town, except Redruth,
which is of no consideration, 'till we come to Padstow-Haven,
which is near thirty miles: The country is, indeed, both fruitful
and pleasant, and several houses of gentlemen are seen as we
pass; the sands, also, are very pleasant to the eye, and to
travel upon; Among the gentlemens houses, is, Lanhidrock,
the seat of the Earls of Radnor, who are Barons of Truro, and
were so, long before they obtained the title of Radnor; also
a good house belonging to the ancient family of Trefusis.

In viewing these things, we observed the hills fruitful of
tin, copper, and lead, all the way on our right hand, the product
of which, is carried all to the other shore; so that we shall have
little to say of it here. The chief business on this shore, is in
the herring fishing; the herrings, about October, come driving
up the Severn Sea, and from the coast of Ireland, in prodigious

256 DEFOE'S TOUR

shoals, and beat all upon this coast as high as Biddeford, and
Barnstable, in Devonshire, and are caught in great quantities
by the fishermen, chiefly on account of the merchants of Fal-
mouth, Foy, and Plymouth, and other ports on the south.

Padstow is a large town, and stands on a very good harbour
for such shipping as use that coast, that is to say, for the Irish
trade: The harbour is the mouth of the river Camel, or Carnal,
which rising at Camelford, runs down by Bodmyn to Wodbridge,
or Wardbridge, a large stone bridge of eight arches, or there-
abouts, built by the general good will of the country gentlemen;
but at the motion of a religious man, named Lovibond, moved
in mere charity; the passage over the river there, before, being
very dangerous, and having been the loss of some lives, as weU
as goods. The passage from this town of Padstow to Ireland, is
called, by writers, to be no more than twenty-four hours, but
not justly: It is true, that Padstow being the first, and best, if
not the only haven on this shore, the trade from Ireland settled
here of course, and a great many ships in this harbour, are
imploy'd in the commerce; but to say, they make the voyage in
four-and-twenty hours, is to say, It has been so, or, on extra-
ordinary gales of fair wind, it may be done; but not one in
twenty-four ships makes its voyage in twenty-four hours; and,
I believe, it may be said, they are oftener five or six days in
the passage.

A little way within the land S.W. from Padstow, lies
St. Columb, eminent for nothing but its being the antient
estate of the famous Anmdel of Trerice, of late years made
noble by King Charles II., being still famous in the present
Lord Arundel of Trerice; also between them, is a very antient
seat of a family of the name of Prideaux who, in Queen
Elizabeth's time, built a very noble seat there, which remains
to this day, tho' time makes the architect of it look a little
out of fashion.

Higher within the land, lies the town of Bodmyn, once one
of the coming towns for tin, but lost it to Lestwithyel: How-
ever, this town enjoys several privileges, some of which are
also tokens of its antiquity.

The coinage towns were, in Queen Elizabeth's time, four;

Leskard, Truro,

Lestwithyel, Helston.

Since that, in King James's time, was added,
Pensance.

CORNWALL 257

Tintagel Castle lies upon this coast a little farther, a mark of
great antiquity, and every writer has mentioned it; but as
antiquity is not my work, I leave the ruins of Tintagel to those
that search into antiquity; little or nothing, that I could hear,
is to be seen at it; and as for the story of King Arthur being
both born and killed there, 'tis a piece of tradition, only on
oral history, and not any authority to be produced for it.

We have nothing more of note in this county, that I could
see, or hear of, but a set of monumental stones, found standing
not far from Bodmyn, called The Hurlers, of which the country,
nor all the writers of the country, can give us no good account;
so I must leave them as I found them.

The game called the Hurlers, is a thing the Cornish men
value themselves much upon; I confess, I see nothing in it,
but that it is a rude violent play among the boors, or country
people; brutish and furious, and a sort of an evidence, that
they were, once, a kind of barbarians: It seems, to me, some-
thing to resemble the old way of play, as it was then called,
with whirle-bats, with which Hercules slew the gyant, when he
undertook to clean the Augean stable.

The wrestling in Cornwall, is, indeed, a much more manly
and generous exercise, and that closure, which they call the
Cornish Hug, has made them eminent in the wrestling rings all
over England, as the Norfolk, and Suffolk men, are for their
dexterity at the hand and foot, and throwing up the heels of
their adversary, without taking hold of him.

I came out of Cornwall by passing the river Tamar at
Launceston, the last, or rather, the first, town in the county,
the town shewing little else, but marks of its antiquity; for
great part of it is so old, as it may, in a manner, pass for an old,
ragged, decay'd place, in general. It stands at a distance, almost
two miles from the river, over which, there is a very good bridge ;
the town is eminent, however, for being, as we call it, the county
town, where the assizes are always kept.

In the time when Richard, Earl of Cornwall, had the absolute
government of this county, and was, we might say, king of the
country, it was a frontier town, walled about, and well fortified,
and had, also, a strong castle to defend it; but these are seen, now,
only in their old cloaths, and lie all in ruins and heaps of rubbish.

It is a principal gain to the people of this town, that they
let lodgings to the gentlemen, who attend here in the time of
the assizes, and other publick meetings; as particularly, that
of electing knights of the shire, and at the county sessions,

258 DEFOE'S TOUR

which are held here; for which purposes, the town's people
have their rooms better furnished than in other places of this
country, though their houses are but low; nor do they fail to
make a good price to their lodgers, for the conveniences they
afford them.

The town sends two members to Parliament, and so does
Newport, a little village adjoining, and which, indeed, is but
a part of Launceston itself; so that the town may be said, almost,
to choose four Members of Parliament. There is a fine image,
or figure of Mary Magdalen, upon the tower of the church,
which the Catholicks fail not to pay their reverences to, as they
pass by. There is no tin, or copper, or lead, found hereabouts,
as I could find, nor any manufacture in the place; there are
a pretty many attorneys here, who manage business for the
rest of their fraternity at the assizes: As to trade, it has not
much to boast of, and yet there are people enough in it to
excuse those who call it a populous place: There is a long nook
of the county, runs north from this place, which is called the
Hundred of Stratton, and in which there is one market town,
and no more, the name of which, is Stratton; but has nothing in,
or about it, worth our making any remarks. Passing the river
Tamar, as above, about two miles from Launceston, we enter
the great county of Devon, and as we enter Devonshire, in the
most wild and barren part of the county, and where, formerly,
tin mines were found, though now they are either quite exhausted,
or not to be found without more charge than the purchase, if
found, would be worth; so we must expect it a little to resemble
its neighbour country for a while.

The river Tamar, here, is so full of fresh salmon, and those
so exceeding fat, and good, that they are esteemed, in both
counties, above the fish, of the same kind, found in other
places; and the quantity is so great, as supplies the country in
abundance, which is occasioned by the mouth of the river being
so very large, and the water so deep for two leagues before it
opens into Plymouth Sound, so that the fish have a secure
retreat in the salt water for their harbour and shelter, and
from thence they shoot up into the fresh water, in such vast
numbers to cast their spawn, that the country people cannot
take too many.

It is observed of Cornwall, as of one or two counties more
in England, that all the rivers that are in the county, rise within
the bounds of the same county; and this must needs be because
this river Tamar, which parts the two counties, rises in the

DEVONSHIRE 259

upper edge, within a little more than two miles of the North,
or Severn Sea, and runs into the South, or British Channel,
cross the whole limits, so that no river out of Devonshire, can
enter Cornwall, that little piece in the north excepted; unless
we should suppose it to run cross the Tamar, which is not to
be thought of.

As we are just entered Devonshire, as I said above, it seems,
at first sight, a wild, barren, poor country; but we ride but a
few miles, 'till we find an alteration in several things: i. More
people; 2. Larger towns; 3. The people all busy, and in full
employ upon their manufactures.

At the uppermost, and extreme part of the county, N.W.
there runs a huge promontory, a mountain like proboscis, into
the sea, beyond all the land on either side, whether of Devon-
shire, or of Cornwall. This they would fain have called Hercules's
Promontory, and Mr. Cambden, in his writing, and his map-
maker also, calls it Herculis Promontorium; but the honest
sailers, and after them, the plain country people, call it, in
down-right modern English, Hartland Point, or, Hearty Point,
from the town of Hartland, which stands just within the shore,
and is on the very utmost edge of the county of Devon: It is
a market town, though so remote, and of good resort too, the
people coming to it out of Cornwall, as well as out of Devon-
shire; and particularly the fisher-boats of Barnstaple, Bidiford,
and other towns on the coast, lying often under the lee, as they
call it, of these rocks, for shelter from the S.W. or S.E. winds;
the seamen go on shore here, and supply themselves with
provisions; nor is the town unconcerned in that gainful fishing
trade, which is carried on for the herrings on this coast, many
seamen and fishing vessels belonging to the town.

From this point or promontory, the land, falling away for
some miles, makes a gulph or bay, which, reaching to the head
land, or point of Barnstable River or Haven, is called from
thence, Barnstable Bay; into this bay, or at the W. end of this
bay, the rivers Taw and Tower empty themselves at one
mouth, that is to say, in one channel; and it is very particular,
that as two rivers join in one channel, so here are two great
trading towns in one port, a thing which as it is not usual, so
I cannot say 'tis any advantage to either of them; for it
naturally follows, that they rival one another, and lessen both;
whereas, had they been join'd together in one town, or were
it possible to join them, they would make the most considerable
town, or city rather, in all this part of England.

260 DEFOE'S TOUR

These are the towns of Barnstable and Biddiford, or, as
some write it, Bediford; the first of these is the most antient,
the last the most flourishing; the harbour or river is in its
entrance the same to both, and when they part, the Tower
turning to the right, or south west, and the Taw to the S.E. yet
they seem to be both so safe, so easy in the channel, so equally
good with respect to shipping, so equi-distant from the sea, and
so equally advantageous, that neither town complains of the
bounty of the sea to them, or their situation by land; and yet,
of late years, the town of Biddiford has flourished, and the
town of Barnstable rather declin'd.

Biddiford is a pleasant, clean, well-built town; the more
antient street which lies next the river, is very pleasant, where
is the bridge, a very noble key, and the custom-house; this
part also is very well built and populous, and fronts the river
for above three quarters of a mile: But besides this, there is
a new spacious street, which runs N. and S. or rather N.W.
and S.E. a great length, broad as the High Street of Excester,
well-built, and, which is more than all, well inhabited, with
considerable and wealthy merchants, who trade to most parts
of the trading world.

Here, as is to be seen in almost all the market towns of
Devonshire, is a very large, well-built, and well-finish'd meeting-
house, and, by the multitude of people which I saw come out
of it, and the appearance of them, I thought all the town had
gone thither, and began to enquire for the church: But when
I came to the church, I found that also, large, spacious, and
well filled too, and that with people of the best fashion. The
person who officiates at the meeting-house in this town, I hap-
pened to have some conversation with, and found him to be
not only a learned man, and master of good reading; but a
most acceptable gentlemanly person, and one, who, contrary
to our received opinion of those people, had not only good
learning, and good sense, but abundance of good manners, and
good humour; nothing soure, cynical, or morose in him, and,
in a word, a very valuable man: And as such a character always
recommends a man to men of sense and good breeding, so
I found this gentleman was very well received in the place,
even by those who he differed from in matters of religion, and
those differences did not, as is usual, make any breach in their
conversing with him: His name, as I remember, was Bartlet.
But this is a digression: I wish I could say the like of all the
rest of his brethren.

DEVONSHIRE 261

The trade of this town being very much in fish, as it is also
of all the towns on this coast> I observed here, that several
ships were employ'd to go to Leverpool, and up the river
Mersey to Warrington, to fetch the rock salt, which is found in
that county, (and of which I shall say more in my remarks on
those parts) which rock salt they bring to Biddiford and Barn-
stable, and here they dissolve it into brine in the sea water,
joyning the strength of two bodies into one, and then boil it
up again into a new salt, as the Dutch do by the French and
Portuguese salt: This is justly calTd salt upon salt, and with
this they cure their herrings; and as this is a trade which can
be but of a few years standing, because the rock itself has not
been discovered in England much above twenty years; so the
difference in curing the fish has been such, and it has so recom-
mended their herrings in foreign markets, that the demand
for them has considerably increased, and consequently the trade.

There is indeed, a very fine stone bridge over the river here,
but the passage over it is so narrow, and they are so chary of
it, that few carriages go over it; but as the water ebbs quite
out of the river every low water, the carts and waggons go over
the sand with great ease and safety; the arches of the bridge
are beautiful and stately; but as for saying one of them is so
big, that a ship of 60 tons may sail under it, &c. as a late author
asserts, I leave that where I find it, for the people of Bidiford
to laugh at: If it had been said the hull of such a ship might
pass under the bridge, it might have been let go; But, as he
says, It may SAIL under it, which must suppose some or one
of its masts standing too; this puts it past all possibility of
belief, at least to those who judge of such things by rules of
mechanism, or by what is to be seen in other parts of the world,
no such thing being practicable either at London Bridge,
Rochester Bridge, or even at York, where the largest arch in
England is supposed to be.

Bidiford was antiently the inheritance of the family of
Granville, or Greenfield, as formerly calTd, and the Earl of
Bath, who is the heir and chief of the family, is now Baron
of Bidiford, Viscount Lansdown, and Earl of Bath.

As Biddiford has a fine bridge over the Tower or Towridge,
so Barnstable has a very noble bridge over the Taw, and though
not longer, is counted larger and stronger than the other. These
two rival towns are really very considerable; both of them have
a large share in the trade to Ireland, and in the herring fishery,
and in a trade to the British colonies in America; if Biddiford

262 DEFOE'S TOUR

cures more fish, Barnstable imports more wine, and other
merchandizes; they are both established ports for landing wooll
from Ireland; of which by itself.

If Biddiford has a greater number of merchants, Barnstable
has a greater commerce within land, by its great market for
Irish wooll and yarn, &c. with the serge-makers of Tiverton
and Excester, who come up hither to buy. So that, in a word,
Barnstable, though it has lost ground to Biddiford, yet, take it
in all its trade compleatly, is full as considerable as Biddiford;
only, that perhaps, it was formerly far superior to it, and the
other has risen up to be a match to it.

Barnstable is a large, spacious, well built town, more populous
than Biddiford, but not better built, and stands lower; insomuch,
that at high water in spring tides, it is, as it were, surrounded
with water; the bridge here, was built by the generous gift
of one Stamford, a citizen and merchant of London, who, it
seems, was not a native of this place, but by trading here to
his gain, had kindness enough for the town, to offer such a
benefaction to them as they enjoy the benefit of to this day.

The bridge at Biddiford as above, was likewise a gift; but
was, as they say, done by collections among the clergy, by
grant of indulgences and the like church management: But
be it how it will, both the towns are infinitely obliged to the
benefactors.

Behind Biddiford, that is as we come from Launceston, are
several good towns, though I observ'd that the country was
wild and barren; as Tavistock, belonging to the house of Bedford,
and giving the title of marquis, to the eldest son of that illus-
trious ducal family; the town of Torrington, on the same river
Towridge that Biddiford stands on; the title of Earl of Tor-
rington, was first given to the late General Monk, Duke of
Albemarle, in honour, and for a reward of his loyalty, in
restoring King Charles II. and the line being extinct in his
son, it was given by King William III. to Admiral Herbert,
who came over with him, and was immediately made admiral
of the British fleet, to defend the possession of the crown in
the person of that prince; and since that to Sir George Bing,
one of our present admirals, and one who asserted the authority
and power of the British navy against the Spaniards, at the
late sea fight near Cape Passaro in Sicily: So that the town of
Torrington, seems to be appropriated to the honour of the
^defenders of the British sovereignty at sea.

Another town in this part of the country is Okehampton,

DEVONSHIRE 263

vulgarly Okington, a good market town, which gave title of
baron to the Lord Mohun, and sends two members to the
Parliament; it is a manufacturing town, as all the towns this
way now are, and pretty rich; and having said this, I have said
all, unless it be, that in the records of antiquity, it appears to
have been much more considerable than it is now, having 92
knights fees belonging to it. But as I studiously avoid medling
with antiquity in these accounts, studying to give you the
present state of the countries and towns through which I travel,
rather than what they have been; so I say no more of those
things than needs must.

A little above Barnstable, N.E. upon the coast, stands a good
market and port town, calTd Ufar-Comb, a town of good trade,
populous and rich, all which is owing to its having a very good
harbour and road for ships, and where ships from Ireland often
put in, when, in bad weather, they cannot, without the extremest
hazard, run into the mouth of the Taw, which they call Barn-
stable Water; and this is one reason, which causes the merchants
at Barnstable, to do much of their business at this port of
Ilfar-comb.

Antiquity tells us long stories, of the Danes landing on this
coast; of Hubba, the Danish king, being slain here, that is at
Kennith Castle, between this place and the mouth of the Taw
and Towridge, and that the place was calTd Hubbestow ever
after, from the burying of this prince there; All this may be
true, for ought we know, but I could neither find or hear of
this castle of Kennith, or burial place^ Hubbestow, or any
thing of the ruins or remains of them in the country; so I shall
trouble you no farther about them.

The sea coast in this county, runs a little farther east by
north, but I found there was nothing of moment to be seen
there, except fishing towns, and small creeks, on which are
two small market towns, such as Combemerton, and Porlock,
'till we came to Minehead.

Leaving the coast, we came, in our going southward, to the
great river Ex, or Isca, which rises in the hills on this north
side of the county, and that so far, as, like the Tamar, it begins
within four or five miles of the Severn Sea; the country it
rises in, is called Exmore, Cambden calls it a filthy, barren,
ground, and, indeed, so it is; but as soon as the Ex comes off
from the moors, and hilly country, and descends into the lower
grounds, we found the iteration; for then we saw Devonshire
in its other countenance, viz. cultivated, populous, and fruitful;

K 820

264 DEFOE'S TOUR

and continuing so 'till we came to Tiverton, a town which
I mentioned before, but did not fully describe.

Next to Excester, this is the greatest manufacturing town in
the county, and, of all the inland towns, is next to it in wealth,
and in numbers of people; it stands on the river Ex, and has
over it, a very fine bridge, with another over the little river
Loman, which, immediately after, falls into the Ex just below
the town: Antiquity says, before those bridges were built,
there were two fords here, one through each river, and that
the town was from thence called Twyford-ton, that is, the
town upon the two fords, and so by abbreviating the sounds
Twy-for-ton, then Tivertpn; but that I leave to the learned
searchers into antient things.

But the beauty of Tiverton is the Free-School, at the east
entrance into the town, a noble building, but a much nobler
foundation; it was erected by one Peter Blundel, a clothier,
and a lover of learning, who used the saying of William of
Wickham to the king when he founded the royal school at
Winchester, viz. That if he was not himself a scholar, he would
be the occasion of making more scholars, than any scholar in
England; to which end he founded this school: He has endowed
it with so liberal a maintenance, that, as I was informed, the
school-master has, at least, sixty pounds per annum, besides
a very good house to live in, and the advantage of scholars not
on the foundation, and the usher in proportion; and to this
he added two fellowships, and two scholarships, which he
gave the maintenance for to Sydney-College in Cambridge, and
one fellowship, and two scholarships, to Baliol-College in
Oxford, all which are appointed for the scholars bred up in this
school, and the present reverend master, was a scholar upon
the foundation in the same school.

As this is a manufacturing country, as above, we found the
people, here, all fully employed, and very few, if any, out of
work, except such as need not be unemploy'd, but were so
from mere sloth and idleness, of which, some will be found
every where.

From this town, there is little belonging to Devonshire, but
what has been spoken of, except what lies in the road to Taunton,
which we took next, where we meet with the river Columb,
a river rising also in the utmost limits of the shire towards
Somersetshire, and giving name to so many towns on its banks,
as leaves no room to doubt of its own name being right, such
as Columb David's, Ufcolumbe, Columstock, and Columbton;

DEVONSHIRE AND SOMERSETSHIRE 265

the last is a market town, and they are all full of manufacturers,
depending much on the master manufacturers of Tiverton.

With this town, we leave the county of Devon, and entering
Somersetshire, have really a taste of a different country from
Devonshire; for entering Wellington, the first town we came
at in Somersetshire, though partly employed in manufacturing
too, we were immediately surrounded with beggars, to such
a degree, that we had some difficulty to keep them from under
our horse heels.

It was our misfortune at first, that we threw some farthings,
and halfpence, such as we had, among them; for thinking by
this to be rid of them, on the contrary, it brought out such a
croud of them, as if the whole town was come out into the
street, and they ran in this manner after us through the whole
street, and a great way after we were quite out of the town;
so that we were glad to ride as fast as we could through the town
to get clear of them; I was, indeed, astonish J d at such a sight,
in a country where the people were so generally full of work,
as they were here; for in Cornwall, where there are hardly any
manufacturers, and where there are, indeed, abundance of poor,
yet we never found any thing like this.

Before I quite leave Devonshire, I must mention one thing,
which I observed at my first setting out; namely, That I would
take notice how every county in England furnish'd something
of its produce towards the supply of the city of London: Now
I must allow, that Cornwall is, in some respects, an exception
to this rule, because, though it is fruitful enough for the supply
of its own inhabitants, yet, in the first place, the waste grounds
are so many, the inhabitants so numerous, and the county so
narrow, that, except the herrings, a few of which may be brought
to London for sale, they have not much overplus to furnish
other parts with; but then they make us amends by sending up
an immense wealth in their tin, lead, and copper, from the
bowels of their barren mountains, and the export of the pil-
chards, and herrings, from both their shores to Spain and
Italy, from whence much of the returns are again brought to
London for their vent and consumption.

In like manner, the county of Devon has been rich in mines
of tin and lead, though they seem at present, wrought out;
and they had their stannary towns and coinage, as well as in
Cornwall; nay, so numerous were the miners or tinners, as they
are called in this county, that they were, on occasion of a
national muster, or defence, regimented by themselves, arni'd,

266 DEFOE'S TOUR

and officer'd by themselves, and were, in short, a separate
militia from the trained bands, or militia of the county; but
now we see the tin works in Devonshire is quite laid aside, not
one tin mine being at work in the whole county: There are,
indeed, some copper-works undertaken on the north side, as
we were told; but I do not find, that they are yet brought to
any perfection, and about Ilfarcomb, Comb Mertin, also at
Delverton, in the north part of the county, they have been at
work to see if they can recover some silver mines, which, in
the time of King Edward III. were so large, that they employed
three hundred miners, besides other workmen, and brought that
prince great sums of money for the carrying on his wars against
France: What progress they are now like to make in it, I cannot
yet learn.

But there is one article in the produce of Devonshire, which
makes good what I have written before, That every county
contributes something towards the supply of London; and this
is, the cyder which I have mentioned already, and which takes
up the south part of the county, between Topsham and Axmin-
ster, where they have so vast a quantity of fruit, and so much
cyder made, that sometimes they have sent ten, or twenty
thousand hogsheads of it in a year to London, and at a very
reasonable rate too.

The county of Somerset joins to the N.E. part of Devonshire.
I touch'd only upon one point of the county in my last, as I went
west. The whole county is worth a more particular account,
than can be given within the space of a letter.

I entered the county, as I observed above, by Wellington,
where we had the entertainment of the beggars; from whence
we came to Taunton, vulgarly called Taunton Dean upon the
River Ton; this is a large, wealthy, and exceedingly populous,
town: One of the chief manufacturers of the town told us,
That there was at that time so good a trade in the town, that
they had then eleven hundred looms going for the weaving of
sagathies, du roys, and such kind of stuffs, which are made
there; and that which added to the thing very much, was,
that not one of those looms wanted work: He farther added,
That there was not a child in the town, or in the villages round
it, of above five years old, but, if it was not neglected by its
parents, and untaught, could earn its own bread. This was
what I never met with in any place in England, except at
Colchester in Essex.

This town chooses two Members of Parliament, and their

SOMERSETSHIRE 267

way of choosing is, by those who they call "pot-walloners," that
is to say, every inhabitant, whether house-keeper or lodger,
that dresses their own victuals; to make out which, several
inmates, or lodgers, will, sometime before the election, bring
out their pots, and make fires in the street, and boil their
victuals in the sight of their neighbours, that their votes may
not be called in question.

There are two large parish churches in this town, and two
or three meeting-houses, whereof one, is said to be the largest
in the county. The inhabitants have been noted for the number
of Dissenters; for among them it was always counted a seminary
of such: They suffered deeply in the Duke of Monmouth's
Rebellion, but paid King James home for the cruelty exercised
by Jeffries among them; for when the Prince of Orange arrived,
the whole town ran in to him, with so universal a joy, that,
'twas thought, if he had wanted it, he might have raised a
little army there, and in the adjacent part of the country.

There was, and, I suppose, is still, a private college, or
academy, for the Dissenters in this town; the tutor, who then
managed it, was named Warren, who told me, that there were
threescore and twelve ministers then preaching, whereof six
had conformed to the Church, the rest were among the Dis-
senters, who had been his scholars, whereupon, one of his own
sort had, it seems, stiled him the Father of the Faithful: The
academy, since his death, is continued, but not kept up to the
degree it was, in the days of the said Mr. Warren.

From this town of Taunton, which is by far the greatest in
all this part of the country, and has more people in it, than the
city of York, we went north to take a view of the coast. Exmore,
of which mention was made above, where the River Ex rises,
lies in the way, part of it in this country, and extending to the
sea side: It gives, indeed, but a melancholy view, being a vast
tract of barren, and desolate lands; yet on the coast, there are
some very good sea-ports. As,

i. Porlock, on the very utmost extent of the country; it has
a small harbour, but of no importance, nor has it any thing of
trade, so I need but name it. 2. Minhead, the best port, and
safest harbour, in all these counties, at least, on this side: No
ship is so big, but it may come in, and no weather so bad, but
the ships are safe when they are in; and they told me, that in
the great storm anno 1703, when in all the harbours and rivers
in the county, the ships were blown on shore, wrecked, and
lost, they suffered little or no damage in this harbour.

268 DEFOE'S TOUR

The trade of this town lies chiefly with Ireland, and this
was, for many years, the chief port in this part of England,
where wool from Ireland was allowed to be imported; but that
liberty is since inlarged to several other ports by Act of
Parliament.

This corporation sends two members to the Parliament,
which are chosen also, as at Taunton, by the pot-walloners;
the town is well built, is full of rich merchants, and has some
trade also to Virginia, and the West Indies: They correspond
much with the merchants of Barnstable, and Bristol, in their
foreign trade.

There are some very good families, and of very antient
standing, in this part of the county, among which, the families
of Seymour, of Portman, of Orchard, Wyndham, Popham of
Wellington, Mallet, an antient family of Norman extraction,
Mohun, Beauchamp, and some others, are most eminent; the
Mohuns in particular were antiently lords of Dunstar Castle,
at a small distance from the sea, and very strong. Here formerly
was the antient mansion, or inheritance, of the Lords Mohun,
who, as above, long enjoy' d it: Who it will now descend to, that
antient family being extinct in the person of the late unhappy
Lord Mohun, who was kilTd in a duel with Duke Hamilton,
I could not learn.

From hence the coast bears back west to Watchet, a small
port also, but of no importance, that is to say, 'tis of no import-
ance now; for if we may calculate things present, by things
past, the town of Minhead is risen out of the decay of the
towns of Porlock and Watchet, which were once important
places; and the reason is clear, since the increase of shipping
and trade, and the improvement of the navigating skill, bigger
ships being brought into use, than were formerly built; accord-
ingly, larger ports, and deeper water, were requisite to harbour
such vessels, than would serve for that purpose before; and the
harbour at Minhead being fairer, and much deeper, than those
at Watchet and Porlock, and therefore able to secure those
greater ships, which the others were not, the merchants removed
to it; and thus, in time, the town grew up, to what we now find
it to be.

From hence the winding shore brings us to Bridgewater.
This is an antient and very considerable town and port, it
stands at the mouth of the river Parrat, or Perot, which conies
from the south, after having received the river Tone from the
west, which is made navigable up to Taunton, by a very fine

SOMERSETSHIRE 269

new channel, cut at the expence of the people of Taunton, and
which, by the navigation of it, is infinitely advantagious to that
town, and well worth all their expence, first by bringing up
coals, which are brought from Swanzy in Wales by sea to
Bridgewater, and thence by barges up this river to Taunton;
also for bringing all heavy goods and merchandizes from
Bristol, such as iron, lead, oyl, wine, hemp, flax, pitch, tar,
grocery, and dye stuffs, and the like; their tobacco they generally
received from Barnstable by land, which is about sixteen
miles west

This town of Bridgewater, is a populous, trading town, is
well built, and as well inhabited, and has many families of
good fashion dwelling in it, besides merchants. The famous
Admiral Blake, was a native of this town. Here it was, that
the Duke of Monmouth, finding himself defeated in his expecta-
tion of the city of Bristol, and repuls'd at the city of Bath,
and press'd by the approach of the king's troops, who endea-
vour'd to surround him, made his retreat; where, finding the
king's troops followed him, and seem'd resolved to attack him,
he went up to the top of the steeple, with some of his officers,
and viewing the situation of the king's army, by the help of
perspectives, resolved to make an attempt upon them the
same night, by way of prevention, and accordingly march'd
out of the town in the dead of the night to attack them, and
had he not, either by the treachery, or mistake of his guides,
been brought to an impassable ditch, where he could not get
over, in the interval of which, the king's troops took the alarm,
by the firing a pistol among the duke's men, whether, also, by
accident, or treachery, was not known; I say, had not those
accidents, and his own fate, conspired to his defeat, he had
certainly cut the Lord Feversham's army (for he commanded
them) all to pieces; but by these circumstances, he was brought
to a battle on unequal terms, and defeated: The rest I need
not mention.

This town was regularly fortified in the late civil wars, and
sustained two sieges, if not more; the situation of it renders
it easy to be fortified, the river and haven taking one chief
part of the circumference; over the river, they have a very
good bridge of stone, and the tide rises here, at high water,
near six fathoms, whereof, sometimes it comes in with such
furious haste, as to come two fathoms deep at a time, and when
it does so, by surprize, it often does great damage to ships,
driving them foul of one another, and oftentimes oversetting

2 7 o DEFOE'S TOUR

them. This sudden rage of the tide, is called, the "boar/' and is
frequent in all the rivers of this channel, especially in the
Severn itself; 'tis also known in the north, particularly in the
Trent, and the Ouse, at their entrance into Humber, and in
several other places.

In this town of Bridgewater, besides a very large church,
there is a fine new-built meeting-house, that is to say, built
since the Toleration, in which 'tis remarkable, that they have
an advanc'd seat for the mayor and aldermen, when any of the
magistrates should be of their Communion, as sometimes has
happened. Here, also, is a college, or private academy, for the
Dissenters to breed up their preaching youth; the tutor was
one Mr. Moor, a man who, it is own'd, was a master of good
literature; what talent he had at erudition, I can give no
account of, for it is not every master of learning, that makes
a good instructor of others, as I shall observe on some other
occasions.

From Bridgewater, there is a road to Bristol, which they call
the Lower Way; the Upper Way, and which is the more fre-
quented road, being over Mendip Hills. This Lower Way also
is not always passable, being subject to floods, and dangerous
inundations, I mean, dangerous to travel through, especially for
strangers: All this part of the country, viz. between Bridge-
water, and the sea, and on northward upon the coast, lies low,
and is wholly imployed in breeding and feeding of cattle, as are
also the moors, or marsh grounds, which extend themselves up
the rivers Perrot, and Ivfll, into the heart of the country; of
which in its place.

This low part of the country, between Bridgewater and
Bristol, suffered exceedingly in that terrible inundation of the
sea, which was occasioned by the violence of the wind in the
great storm, anno 1703, and the country people have set up
marks upon their houses and trees, with this note upon them,
"Thus high the waters came in the great storm": "Thus far the
great tide flowed up in the last violent tempest"; and the like.

And in one place they shewed us, where a ship was, by the
force of the water, and the rage of the tempest, driven up
upon the shore, several hundred yards from the ordinary high
water mark, and was left in that surprizing condition upon
dry land.

As this country is all a grazing, rich, feeding soil, so a great
number of large oxen are fed here, which are sent up to London;
so that now we come into the reach of my former observation,

SOMERSETSHIRE 271

viz. That every county furnishes something for the supply of
London, and no county in England furnishes more effectual
provisions, nor, in proportion, a greater value than this. These
supplies are in three articles.

1. Fat oxen (as above) as large, and good, as any in England.

2. Large Cheddar cheese, the greatest, and best of the kind
in England.

3. Colts bred in great numbers in the moors, and sold into
the northern counties, where the horse copers, as they are
called, in Staffordshire, and Leicestershire, buy them again,
and sell them to London for cart horses, and coach horses, the
breed being very large.

As the low part of this county is thus imployed in grazing
and feeding cattle, so all the rest of this large extended country-
is imployed in the woollen manufactures, and in the best, and
most profitable part of it, viz.

In Taunton - - I 1116 serges > dru SS ets > &c ' and several other
in launton Qf

In Wells, )

Shepton, / Knitting of stockings, principally for the

Glastenbury, { Spanish trade.

&c. )

In Bristol, and }

XT So^e" [ Dru Sg ets > ^oo' ^d other stuffs.
shire side - - - )

In Froom, Phi-
lips-Norton, and
afi the country
bordering upon
Wiltshire - - -

Fine Spanish medley cloths, especially on
that part of the county from Wincanton,
and Meer, to Wanninster,Bruton,Castle-
cary,Temple Comb, down to Gillingham,
and Shaftsbury, in Dorsetshire.

I mention this at large, because this trade of fine Spanish
medley cloth, being the mix'd colours and cloths, with which
all the gentlemen and persons of any fashion in England, are
cloth' d, and vast quantities of which are exported to all parts of
Europe, is so very considerable, so vast an advantage to England,
maintains and supports so many poor families, and makes so
many rich ones, that no man can be just in the description of
things, and in a survey of this part of England, and not enter

* K 820

272 DEFOE'S TOUR

into a particular description of it; the above you may take as
an introduction to it, only I shall add but a little more, concern-
ing this county of Somerset, and shall, upon my entering into
the north-west and west parts of Wiltshire, where the center of
this prodigy of a trade is, sum it all up together, and shew you
the extent of land which it spreads itself upon, and give you
room, at least, to make some guess at the numbers of poor
people, who are sustained and inrich'd by it.

But I must first go back again a little while into Somerset-
shire: The northern part of the county, I did not visit in this
journey, which, as I hinted before, is only a return from my long
travel to the Land's End. In omitting this part, I, of course,
leave the two cities of Bristol and Bath, and that high part of
the county called Mendip Hill, to my next western journey,
which will include all the counties due west from London; for
these now spoken of, though ordinarily called the west country,
are rather S.W. than west.

But as I made a little trip from Bridgewater north, into the
body of the county, I must take notice of what I observed in
that part of it: The first place I came to was Glastenbury, where,
indeed, the venerable marks of antiquity, however I have
declined the observation of them, struck me with some unusual
awe, and I resolved to hear all that could be told me upon that
subject; and first they told me (for there are two pieces of
antiquity, which were to be inquired of in this place) that King
Arthur was buried here, and that his coffin had been found here.

Secondly, that Joseph of Arimathea was here, and that when
he fix'd his staff in the ground, which was on Christmas Day,
it immediately took root, budded, put forth white-thorn leaves,
and the next day, was in full blossom, white as a sheet, and that
the plant is preserved, and blows every Christmas Day, as at
first, to this very day.

I took all this ad referendum, but took guides afterward, to
see what demonstrations there could be given of all these things;
they went over the rums of the place with me, telling me, which
part every particular piece of building had been; and as for the
white-thorn, they carried me to a gentleman's garden in the
town, where it was preserved, and I brought a piece of it away
in my hat, but took it upon their honour, that it really does
blow in such manner, as above, on Christmas Day. However,
it must be confess'd, that it is universally attested.

Where I had the sight of the white-thorn tree, I obtained
a sight of Mr. Cambden, and his continuator, and was, at first,

SOMERSETSHIRE 273

a little concern'd, that a person of Mr. Cambden's judgment,
gave such an account of the legendary part of the history of
this place, with a taste of his crediting the whole story; and
from him I began to believe also, that Joseph of Arimathea, was
really here, and that the Christian religion was preached in this
island within thirty seven years after the death of our Saviour.
This, however, prompted me to farther inquiry, and the
following account occurred, which is to be found, as they say,
in the manuscript History of the Church of Glastenbury, now
deposited in the Cottonian Library, and taken from it by
Mr. Dugdale, in his Monasticon. Fol. i, 2.

GLASTONBURY MONASTERY IN SOMERSETSHIRE,
OF THE ORDER OF ST. BENEDICT

In the year 31 after the Passion of our Lord, twelve of St. Philip
the Apostle's disciples (the chief of whom was Joseph of Arimathea)
came into this country, and preached the Christian faith to Arvi-
ragns, who refused to embrace it, and yet granted them *THg place,
with twelve hides of land; where they made walls of wattles, and
erected the first church in this kingdom, which Christ personally
dedicated to the honour of His Mother, and the place for burial of
His servants, as is said in the manuscript History of the Monastery
of Glastenbury in the Cotton Library. These twelve, and their
successors, continuing long the same number, and leading an
eremetical life, converted a great multitude of pagans to the faith
of Christ. They being all, at length, dead and buried here, the most
holy men Phaganus and Diruvianus, coming into these parts, and
baptizing King Lucius and his people, had the aforesaid hides con-
firm d to them and their successors, the same number of twelve
being kept up 'till the coming of St. Patrick, who, instructing them
in the monastical life, became their abbot: After whom, the holy
fathers Benignus, Kolumkil, and Gildas, led a most holy life there.
Next came St. David Archbishop of Menevia, now called St. David's,
who added a new chapel to the church, dedicating it to the blessed
Virgin, and erected a rich altar; and near the said chapel, Joseph
of Arimathea, and other holy men, are said to have been buried.
Tho' the church was afterwards several times rebuilt, this place
still remained under the former consecration, and was held in such
veneration, that kings, bishops, and all the greatest persons, thought
themselves happy in adding something to its possessions, or being
buried with any small parcel of its earth. St. Dunstan, and other
holy abbots, always preserving the number of twelve monks, added
to them several clergymen that sung well.

This church, by reason of its antiquity, was by the English called
Ealdchurch, that is, Old Church; and the people of the country
about it, thought no oath more sacred, than to swear by the Old
Church; as being the first, and oldest church in England, and held
in such veneration, that it was called a second Rome, for sanctity;

274 DEFOE'S TOUR

because, as Rome was honoured with a multitude of martyrs, so
this place was renowned for many confessors.

This island, in which this church stands, was, by the Britons,
first called Ynswyrtryn, that is, the Glass Island, by reason of the
river, as it were of the colour of glass, incompassing the marsh. It
was called an island, because inclosed about by a deep marsh. It
was called Avallonia, either from the British word aval, signifying
an apple, as being full of fruit-trees, or from Avallon, who was once
lord of that territory. The Saxons gave it the name of Glastingebury,
that is, the Town of Glass. There are several islands about this, all
belonging to it, all which together were reduced to make up the
twelve hides above-mentioned, the bounds whereof may be seen
in Dugdale, p. 2. and 3. All the places within those bounds enjoy
all sorts of immunities, from the first times of Christianity, granted
and confirmed to the church of Glastonbury by the British, English,
and Norman kings.

This church was the sacred repository of the ashes of a multitude
of saints, insomuch that no comer of it, or of the church-yard, is
destitute of the same. There lie the twelve disciples (above-men-
tioned) of St. Philip the Apostle, with their chief, Joseph of Arima-
thea, and his son Josephus; also St. Patrick, the apostle of Ireland;
St. Benignus, disciple to St. Patrick; St. Pinius, disciple to Benignus;
St. Gildas, the British historian; St. David, Bishop of Menevia;
St. Dunstan; St. Indrastus, martyr, and his seven companions;
St. Urban, martyr; St. Apollinaris, bishop and martyr, disciple to
St. Peter the Apostle; St. Vincentius, archdeacon and martyr;
three of the Holy Innocents; St. Besilius, martyr; part of St. Oswald,
king and martyr; St. Valerius, and St. Salyius, bishops and martyrs;
St. Canon, Anastatius, Renignius, Casanius, Abdon, and Sennen,
martyrs; St. Paulinus, Bishop of the Northumbrians; St. Aidan,
Bishop of Lindisfarn; Coelfrid and Boisilus, abbots; Venerable
Bede; St. Benedict, bishop; Hesterpine, Sigfride, and Herbert,
abbots; St. Idamus, bishop; St. Teison, abbot, and his twelve
companions; St. Htwich; St. Lilianus, abbot; part of Guthlac, the
anchorite; St. Poppa, Archbishop of Treves; St. Geminianus, con-
fessor; the holy virgins Hilda, Hebbe, Begu, Crisante, Udilia, Mary,
Martha, Lucy, Walburge, Gertrude, Cecily, Wenta, Mamilla,
Edberga, Elfleda, Batildis, Ursula, Daria, Ealswitha; the last of
these affirmed to be intire many years after she had been interred.
Many more names of holy men and women were lost by the burning
of the antient church, and time has worn out the memory of a still
greater number.

Many holy relicks were also preserved in ihia church: Of those
relating to the Old Testament, part of Rachel's tomb; of the altar
on which Moses pour'd out oyl; of his book; of the tomb of Isaiah;
some manna: relicks of the prophet Daniel; of the three children
delivered from the fiery furnace; six gilt stones of the pavement of
the Temple, and some of the gate. Relating to our Lord Jesus
Christ: Some of the linen He was wrapp'd in; two pieces of the
manger; some of the gold offend by the Wise Men; five stones out
of Jordan, where our Saviour was baptized; one of the vessels in
which Christ turned water into wine; of the stones the Devil proposed

SOMERSETSHIRE 275

to Christ to convert into bread; of the five loaves with which our
Lord fed five thousand persons; of the place where He was trans-
figured; of the stone He stood on in the Temple; of His hair; of the
hem of His garment; and many more, too tedious for this place:
Also relicks of the Blessed Virgin; of St. John Baptist; of the
Apostles; of many martyrs, confessors, and holy virgins.

On this account, Glastonbury was every where held in the greatest
veneration; and, as has been said, the greatest persons coveted to
be buried there ; most of whose names have been lost, and of some,
mention has been made above.

A few feet from the Old Church stood two pyramids; that next
to the church twenty-six feet high, on which were many antiquities
worn out by age. On the uppermost story of it, was a pontifical
image; on the second, the image of a king, with these letter, Heri,
Sexi, and Blister; on the third, were these words, Wcmerest, Bantomp,
Wineweng\ on the fourth, Hate, Wulfred, and Eanfled; on the fifth,
and lowest, an image, and this inscription, Logior, Weslicas, Bregden,
Swelves, Hwingendes, Bera. The other pyramid was eighteen feet
high, and had four stages, on which was to be read, Hedde Bishop
Bregored, and Breorward. What these words signify is not known;
but it is guess'd, they were the names of the persons deposited
within the pyramid. So great was the respect paid by our ancestors
to this place, that they durst not utter any idle words, nor so much
as spit in the church, or church-yard, unless compelled by the utmost
necessity, and even then with the utmost reluctancy and remorse:
Neither durst any man bring a hawk, horse, or dog into the church,
because it had been often observed, that such as had been acci-
dentally brought in, immediately died. Even from foreign countries
the earth of this church-yard was sent for, to bury with the greatest
persons; and it is reported, that even a Mahometan sultan, having
taken an English gentleman in the Holy Land, gave him his liberty,
upon promise, that he would bring him a gantlet full of that earth,
which was accordingly perform' d, and the gentleman returning to
Glastonbury, declared the same upon oath.

As to the burial of King Arthur, Mr. Cambden makes no
doubt of it, and gives us from Giraldus Cambrensis, an account
how King Henry II. caused search to be made for his tomb,
and before they had dug seven foot, they came to a great stone,
having a cross of lead on the inside of it, and the subsequent
letters, or inscription upon it, and in the following rude char-
acter; which the said Giraldus Cambrensis, Mr. Cambden says,
was an eye-witness of, as well as of a coffin of hollowed oak,
which they found by digging nine foot deeper than the inscrip-
tion, wherein were deposited the bones of that great prince.

On the top of a high hill, near a mile from the town, stands an
old tower, which the people vulgarly call the TORR; what it was,
we are not certain; but it is made famous by one thing in parti-
cular; that here King Henry VIII. caused Richard Whitingus,

276

DEFOE'S TOUR

the last Abbot of Glastonbury, to be hanged for refusing to
surrender the monastery.

I must confess, that I cannot so much blame the Catholicks
in those early days, for reverencing this place as they did, or,
at least, 'till they came to found idolatry upon their respect,
if they really beUeved all these things; but my business is to
relate, rather than make remarks.

The inscription on King Arthur's coffin, is as follows:

Four mfles from Glastonbury, lies the little city of Wells,
where is one of the neatest, and, in some respects, the most

SOMERSETSHIRE 277

beautiful, cathedrals in England, particularly the west front of
it, is one complete draught of imagery, very fine, and yet very
antient.

This is a neat, clean city, and the clergy, in particular, live
very handsomly ; the Gloss, or part of the city, where the Bishop's
Palace is, is very properly called so; for it is walled in, and lock'd
up like a little fortification, and has a ditch round it.

The dignified clergy live in the inside of it, and the preben-
daries, and canons, which are very numerous, have very agree-
able dwellings, and live very pleasantly. Here are no less than
seven-and-twenty prebends, and nineteen canons, belonging to
this church, besides a dean, a chancellor, a precentor, and three
arch deacons; a number which very few cathedrals in England
have, besides this.

Dugdale, in his Monasticon, tells us, that the church of Wells
has given to the kingdom, one Cardinal, six High Chancellors,
five High Treasurers, one Lord Privy Seal, one Lord President
of Wales, one Secretary of State, all of them bishops of this
diocess; the county is the diocess, and contains three hundred
eighty-eight parishes, and the arch deaconries are of Wells,
Bath, and Taunton.

The city lies just at the foot of the mountains called Mendip
Hills, and is itself built on a stony foundation. Its manufacture
is chiefly of stockings, as is mentioned already; 'tis well built,
and populous, and has several good families in it; so that there
is no want of good company there.

Near this city, and just under the hills, is the famous, and
so much talk'd of Wokey Hole, which, to me, that had been in
Pool's Hole, in the Peak of Derby, has nothing of wonder or
curiosity in it; the chief thing I observed in this, is, what is
generally found in all such subterraneous caverns; namely, That
the water dropping from the roof of the vault, petrifies, and
hangs in long pieces like isicles, as if it would, in time, turn
into a column to support the arch. As to the stories of a witch
dwelling here, as of a gyant dwelling in the other (I mean in
Pool's Hole) I take them to be equally fabulous, and worth no
notice.

In the low country, on the other side Mendip Hills, lies
Chedder, a village pleasantly situated under the very ridge of
the mountains; before the village is a large green, or common,
a piece of ground, in which the whole herd of the cows, belonging
to the town, do feed; the ground is exceeding rich, and as the
whole village are cowkeepers, they take care to keep up the

278 DEFOE'S TOUR

goodness of the soil, by agreeing to lay on large quantities of
dung for manuring, and inriching the land.

The milk of all the town cows, is brought together every
day into a common room, where the persons appointed, or
trusted for the management, measure every man's quantity,
and set it down in a book; when the quantities are adjusted, the
milk is all put together, and every meal's milk makes one
cheese, and no more; so that the cheese is bigger, or less, as the
cows yield more, or less, milk. By this method, the goodness of
the cheese is preserved, and, without all dispute, it is the best
cheese that England affords, if not, that the whole world affords.

As the cheeses are, by this means, very large, for they often
weigh a hundred weight, sometimes much more, so the poorer
inhabitants, who have but few cows, are obliged to stay the
longer for the return of their milk; for no man has any such
return, 'till his share comes to a whole cheese, and then he has
it; and if the quantity of his milk delivered in, comes to above
a cheese, the overplus rests in account to his credit, 'till another
cheese comes to his share; and thus every man has equal justice,
and though he should have but one cow, he shall, in time, have
one whole cheese. This cheese is often sold for six pence to
eight pence per pound, when the Cheshire cheese is sold but
for two pence to two pence halfpenny.

Here is a deep, frightful chasm in the mountain, in the
hollow of which, the road goes, by which they travel towards
Bristol; and out of the same hollow, springs a little river, which
flows with such a full stream, that, it is said, it drives twelve
mills within a quarter of a mile of the spring; but this is not
to be understood, without supposing it to fetch some winding
reaches in the way; there would not, otherwise, be room for
twelve mills to stand, and have any head of water above the
mill, within so small a space of ground. The water of this
spring, grows quickly into a river, and runs down into the
marshes, and joins another little river called Axe, about
Axbridge, and thence into the Bristol Channel, or Severn Sea.

I must now turn east, and south-east, for I resolved not to
go up the hills of Mendip at all, this journey, leaving that part
to another tour, when I shall give an account of these mountains,
as also of the cities of Bath and Bristol, to which they are very
near, all in one letter.

I come now to that part of the country, which joins itself to
Wiltshire, which I reserved, in particular, to this place, in order
to give some account of the broad-cloth manufacture, which

SOMERSETSHIRE 279

I several times mentioned in my first journey, and which is
carried on here, and that to such a degree, as deserves a place
in all the descriptions, or histories, which shall be given of
this country.

As the east, and south parts of Wiltshire are, as I have
already observed, all hilly, spreading themselves far and wide,
in plains, and grassy downs, for breeding, and feeding, vast
flocks of sheep, and a prodigious number of them: And as the
west and north parts of Somersetshire are, on the contrary,
low, and marshy, or moorish, for feeding, and breeding, of
black cattle, and horses, or for lead-mines, &c. So all the south
west part of Wiltshire, and the east part of Somersetshire, are
low and flat, being a rich, inclosed country, full of rivers and
towns, and infinitely populous, insomuch, that some of the
market towns are equal to cities in bigness, and superior to
them hi numbers of people.

This low, flat country, contains part of the three counties
of Somerset, Wilts, and Gloucester, and that the extent of it
may be the easier understood by those who know any thing of
the situation of the country, it reaches from Cirencester in the
north, to Sherburn on the edge of Dorsetshire south, and from
the Devizes east, to Bristol west, which may take in about fifty
miles in length where longest, and twenty in breadth where
narrowest.

In this extent of country, we have the following market towns,
which are principally employ'd in the clothing trade, that is to
say, in that part of it, which I am now speaking of; namely,
fine medley, or mix'd cloths, such as are usually worn in England
by the better sort of people; and, also, exported in great quan-
tities to Holland, Hamburgh, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, Italy,
&c. The principal clothing towns in this part of the country*
are these,

( Frome, Pensford, Philip's Norton, Bruton,

Somersetshire < Shepton Mallet, Castle Carey, and Win-
( canton.
( Malmsbury, Castlecomb, Chippenham, Cain,

Wiltshire \ Devizes, Bradford, Trubridge, Westbury,
( Warminster, Meer.

^ ,. ( Gillingham, Shaftsbury, Bemister, and Bere,
Dorsetshire j Sturminster, Shireborn.

( Cirencester, Tetbury, Marshfield, Minching-

Gloucester j hampton, and Fairford.

280 DEFOE'S TOUR

These towns, as they stand thin, and at considerable distance
from one another; for, except the two towns of Bradford and
Trubridge, the other stand at an unusual distance; I say, these
towns are interspersed with a very great number of villages,
I had almost said, innumerable villages, hamlets, and scattered
houses, in which, generally speaking, the spinning work of all
this manufacture is performed by the poor people; the master
clothiers, who generally live in the greater towns, sending out
the wooll weekly to their houses, by their servants and horses,
and, at the same time, bringing back the yarn that they have
spun and finished, which then is fitted for the loom.

The increasing and flourishing circumstances of this trade,
are happily visible by the great concourse of people to, and
increase of buildings and inhabitants in these principal clothing
towns where this trade is carried on, and the wealth of the
clothiers. The town of Froom, or, as it is written in our maps,
Frome Sellwood, is a specimen of this, which is so prodigiously
increased within these last twenty or thirty years, that they
have built a new church, and so many new streets of houses,
and those houses are so full of inhabitants, that Frome is now
reckoned to have more people in it, than the city of Bath, and
some say, than even Salisbury itself, and if their trade continues
to increase for a few years more, as it has done for those past, it
is very likely to be one of the greatest and wealthiest inland
towns in England.

I call it an inland town, because it is particularly distinguish'd
as such, being, not only no sea-port, but not near any sea-port,
having no manner of communication by water, no navigable
river at it, or near it. Its trade is wholly clothing, and the
cloths they make, are, generally speaking, all conveyed to
London: Blackwell-Hall is their market, and thither they send
up the gross of their clothing product; and, if we may believe
common fame, there are above ten thousand people in Frome
now, more than lived in it twenty years ago, and yet it was
a considerable town then too.

Here are, also, several large meeting-houses, as well as
churches, as there are, generally, in all the manufacturing,
trading towns in England, especially in the western counties.

The Devizes is, next to this, a large and important town, and
full of wealthy clothiers; but this town has, lately, run pretty
much into the drugget-making trade; a business, which has
made some invasion upon the broad-cloth trade, and great
quantities of druggets are worn in England, as also, exported

WILTSHIRE 281

beyond the seas, even in the place of our broad-cloths, and
where they usually were worn and exported; but this is much the
same as to the trade still; for as it is all a woollen manufacture,
and that the druggets may properly be called cloth, though
narrow, and of a different make, so the makers are all called
clothiers.

The River Avon, a noble and large fresh river, branching
itself into many parts, and receiving almost all the rivers on
that side the hills, waters this whole fruitful vale; and the
water of this river seems particularly qualified for the use of
the clothiers; that is to say, for dying the best colours, and for
fulling and dressing the doth, so that the clothiers generally
plant themselves upon this river, but especially the dyers,
as at Trubridge, and Bradford, which are the two most eminent
doathing towns in that part of the vale for the making fine
Spanish cloths, and of the nicest mixtures.

From these towns south, to Westbury, and to Warminster,
the same trade continues, and the finest medley Spanish cloths,
not in England only, but in the whole world, are made in this
part. They told me at Bradford, That it was no extraordinary
thing to have dothiers in that country worth, from ten thousand,
to forty thousand pounds a man, and many of the great families,
who now pass for gentry in those counties, have been originally
raised from, and built up by this truly noble manufacture.

If I may speak here from the authority of the antient in-
habitants of the place, and who have been curious observers
upon this subject, the country which I have now described, as
principally imploy'd in, and maintained by this prodigy of a
trade, contains two million, three hundred and thirty thousand
acres of land, and has in it seven hundred eighty-eight parishes,
and three hundred and seventy-four thousand people. It is true,
that this is all guess-work; but I must confess myself very
willing to believe, that the reckoning is far short of the account;
for the county is exceeding large and populous.

It may be worth enquiry, by the curious, how the manu-
facturers, in so vast a consumption of the wooll, as such a trade
must take up, can be supplied with wooll for their trade; and,
indeed, it would be something strange, if the answer were not
at hand.

i. We may reasonably condude, that this manufacture was
at first seated in this county, or, as we may say, planted itself
here at first, because of the infinite numbers of sheep, which

282 DEFOE'S TOUR

were fed at that time upon the downs and plains of Dorset,
Wilts, and Hampshire, all adjoining, as a trading town is seated,
or rises gradually upon some large river, because of the benefit
of navigation; and as gentlemen place the mansion houses of
their estates, and seats of their families, as near the pleasant
rivers, woods, and fine prospects as possible, for the delight of
their living; so the first planters of the clothing manufacture,
doubtless, chose this delightful vale for its seat, because of the
neighbourhood of those plains, which might be supposed to be
a fund of wooll for the carrying it on. Thus the manufacture of
white cloth was planted in Stroud Water in Gloucestershire,
for the sake of the excellent water there for the dying scarlets,
and all colours that are dyed in grain, which are better dyed
there, than in any other place of England, some towns near
London excepted. Hence, therefore, we first observe, they
are supplied yearly with the fleeces of two or three millions
of sheep.

2. But as the number of sheep fed on these downs is lessened,
rather than increased, because of the many thousand acres of
the carpet ground being, of late years, turned into arable
land, and sowed with wheat; which, by the way, has made
Warminster a market town, on the edge of Somersetshire, as
it now is, without exception, the greatest market for wheat in
England, with this exception only, viz. Where none of it is
bought to send to London.

I say, The number of sheep, and consequently the quantity
of wooll, decreasing, and at the same time the manufacture,
as has been said, prodigiously increasing, the manufacturers
applied themselves to other parts for a supply, and hence began
the influx of north-country wooll to come in from the counties
of Northampton, Leicester, and Lincoln, the center of which
trade, is about Tetbury and Cirencester, where are the markets
for the north-country wooll, and where, as they say, several
hundred packs of wooll are sold every week, for the supply of
this prodigious consumption.

3. From London, they have great quantities of wooll, which
is generally called Kentish wooll, in the fleece, which is brought
up from thence by the farmers, since the late severe Acts against
their selling it within a certain number of miles of the sea, also
fell-wooll for the combers, bought of the wooll-staplers in
Barnabystreet, and sent back by the carriers, which bring up
the cloths to market.

4. They have also, sometimes, large quantities of Irish wooll,

WILTSHIRE 283

by the way of Bristol, or of Mynhead, in Somersetshire; but this
is uncertain, and only on extraordinary occasions. I omit the
Spanish wooll, as being an article by itself.

Thus, in short, as those that see the numbers of sheep fed on
the downs and plains, as above, and that see the quantity of
wooll brought to the markets of Tetbury, and other towns, and
the quantity sent from London, all into this one vale, would
wonder how it was possible to be consumed, manufactured, and
wrought up; so on the other hand, those that saw the numbers
of people imploy'd, and the vast quantity of goods made in this
part of England, would wonder where the whole nation should
be able to supply them with wooll.

And yet, notwithstanding the whole country is thus imploy'd
in the broad-cloth manufacture, as above, I must not omit to
mention, that here is a very great application to another trade
or two, which I am obliged, by my first scheme, not to forget to
mention, viz. The supplying the city of London with provisions;
though it is true, that the general imployment of the people in
all this county, is in the woollen manufacture; yet, as the
spinning is generally the work of the women and children, and
that the land is here exceeding rich and fertile, so it cannot be
supposed, but that here are fanners in great numbers, whose
business it is to cultivate the land, and supply the rest of the
inhabitants with provisions; and this they do so well, that
notwithstanding the county is so exceeding populous, yet
provisions of all sorts are very cheap, the quantity very great,
and a great overplus sent every day to London for the supply of
their demand, which, as I said before, is great enough to exhaust
a whole nation.

All the lower part of this county, and also of Gloucestershire,
adjoining, is full of large feeding farms, which we call dairies,
and the cheese they make, as it is excellent good of its kind, so
being a different kind from the Cheshire, being soft and thin,
is eaten newer than that from Cheshire. Of this, a vast quantity
is every week sent up to London, where, though it is called
Gloucestershire cheese, yet a great part of it is made in Wilt-
shire, and the greatest part of that which comes to London,
the Gloucestershire cheese being more generally carried to
Bristol, and Bath, where a very great quantity is consumed, as
well by the inhabitants of two populous cities, as also for the
shipping off to our West-India colonies, and other places.

This Wiltshire cheese is carried to the river of Thames, which

284 DEFOE'S TOUR

runs through part of the county, by land carriage, and so by
barges to London.

Again, in the spring of the year, they make a vast quantity
of that we call green cheese, which is a thin, and very soft
cheese, resembling cream cheeses, only thicker, and very rich.
These are brought to market new, and eaten so, and the
quantity is so great, and this sort of cheese is so universally
liked and accepted in London, that all the low, rich lands of
this county, are little enough to supply the market; but then
this holds only for the two first summer months of the year,
May and June, or little more.

Besides this, the farmers in Wiltshire, and the part of Glou-
cestershire adjoining, send a very great quantity of bacon up
to London, which is esteemed as the best bacon in England,
Hampshire only excepted: This bacon is raised in such quan-
tities here, by reason of the great dairies, as above, the hogs
being fed with the vast quantity of whey, and skim'd milk,
which so many farmers have to spare, and which must, other-
wise, be thrown away.

But this is not all, for as the north part of Wiltshire, as well
the downs, as the vales, border upon the river Thames, and,
in some places, conies up even to the banks of it; so most of
that part of the county being arable land, they sow a very great
quantity of barley, which is carried to the markets at Abingdon,
at Farrington, and such places, where it is made into malt, and
carried to London. This imploys all the hill country from above
Malmsbury to Marlbro, and on the side of the Vale of White
Horse, as 'tis called, which is in Berkshire, and the hills adjoyn-
ing, a tract of ground, able to furnish, considering its fertility,
a prodigious quantity of barley, and does so.

Thus Wiltshire itself helps to supply London with cheese,
bacon, and malt, three very considerable articles, besides that
vast manufacture of fine Spanish cloths, which I have said so
much of, and I may, without being partial, say, that it is thereby
rendered one of the most important counties hi England, that
is to say, important to the publick wealth of the kingdom. The
bare product is in itself prodigious great; the downs are an
inexhausted store-house of woofi, and of corn, and the valley,
or low part of it, is the like for cheese and bacon.

One thing here is worth while to mention, for the observation
of those counties in England, where they are not yet arrived to
that perfection of husbandry, as in this county, and I have pur-
posely reserved it to this place: The case is this, The downs or

WILTSHIRE 285

plains, which are generally called Salisbury Plain; but, parti-
cularly, extend themselves over the counties of Southampton,
Wilts, and Dorset, were formerly all left open to be fed by the
large flocks of sheep so often mentioned; but now, so much of
these downs are plowed up, as has increased the quantity of
corn produced in this county, in a prodigious manner, and
lessened their quantity of wooll, as above; all which has been
done by folding their sheep upon the plow'd lands, removing the
fold every night to a fresh place, 'till the whole piece of ground
has been folded on; this, and this alone, has made these lands,
which in themselves are poor, and where, in some places, the
earth is not above six inches above the solid chalk rock, able
to bear as good wheat, as any of the richer lands in the vales,
though not quite so much: I say this alone; for many of these
lands lie so remote from the farmers houses, and up such high
hills, for the fanners live always in the valleys, and by the
rivers, that it could not be worth their while to carry dung
from those farm-houses, to those remote lands; besides, the
draught up hill would be so heavy, and the ways so bad, that
it would kill all their cattle.

If this way of folding sheep upon the fallows, and plowed
lands, were practised, in some parts of England, and especially
in Scotland, they would find it turn to such account, and so
effectually improve the waste lands, which now are useless and
uncultivated, that the sheep would be more valuable, and lands
turn to a better account than was ever yet known among them.
In Wiltshire it appears to be so very significant, that if a farmer
has a thousand of sheep, and no fallows to fold them on, his
neighbours will give him ten shillings a night for every thousand.

I am come now to Marlborough: On the downs, about two
or three miles from the town, are abundance of loose stones,
lying scattered about the plain; some whereof are very large, and
appear to be of the same kind with those at Stonehenge, and
some larger. They are called by the country people, not for
want of ignorance, The Gray Weathers. I do not find any
account given of them in history, or by the greatest of our
antiquaries, so I must leave them as I find them.

At Marlborough, and in several villages near, as well as on
the downs, there are several of those round rising mounts,
which the country people call barrows, and which all our
writers agree, were monuments of the dead, and particularly
of soldiers slain in fight. This in Marlborough, stands in the
Duke of Somerset's garden, and is, by that means, kept up to

286 DEFOE'S TOUR

its due height. There is a winding way cut out of the mount,
that goes several times round it, 'till insensibly it brings you to
the top, where there is a seat, and a small pleasant green, from
whence you look over great part of the town.

This is an antient town, and, at present, has a pretty good
shop-keeping trade, but not much of the manufacturing part.
The river Kennet, lately made navigable by Act of Parliament,
rises just by this town, and running from hence to Hungerford,
and Newbery, becomes a large stream, and passing by Reading,
runs into the Thames near the town. This river is famous for
craw-fish, which they help travellers to at Newbery; but they
seldom want for price.

Between this town of Marlborough, and Abington, westward,
is the Vale of White Horse: The inhabitants tell a great many
fabulous stories of the original of its being so called; but there is
nothing of foundation in them all, that I could see; the whole of
the story is this; Looking south from the vale, we see a trench
cut on the side of a high green hill, this trench is cut in the
shape of a horse, and not ill-shap'd I assure you. The trench is
about two yards wide on the top, about a yard deep, and filled
almost up with chalk, so that at a distance, for it is seen many
miles off, you see the exact shape of a White Horse; but so
large, as to take up near an acre of ground, some say, almost
two acres. From this figure the hill is called, in our maps, White
Horse Hill, and the low, or flat country under it, the Vale of
White Horse.

It is a very fertile and fruitful vale, and extends itself from
Farrington almost to Abington, the 3 not exactly in a line: Some
think 'twas done by the Saxons, whose device was a white
horse, and is so still.

Having spoken of what is most remarkable, or at least, what
most occurred to my observation from the Land's End to
Newbery in Berkshire, I must here take the liberty to look round
upon some passages in later times, which have made this part
of the country more famous than before, i. On the hills on
this side the Devizes, is Roundway Down, where the Lord
Wilmot, and the king's forces, beat, and intirely routed, the
famous Sir William Waller, in the late Rebellion, or Civil War;
from whence the place is called, by some, Runaway Down to
this day. A little nearer towards Marlborough, is St. Ann's Hill,
where, notwithstanding several high hills between, and the
distance of twenty-two miles, or more, is a fair view of Salisbury-
steeple, or spire, which is, without all dispute, the highest in

WILTSHIRE 287

England. The defeat of Sir William Waller, take in the few
words of one of the most impartial historians of those times.
The action was, in short, thus,

Waller had always the misfortune to be beaten when he pursued
xiis enemy to force a fight. This was his case now: He heard that the
Lord Wilmot, with a body of the king's forces, were inarched into
the west to joyn Colonel Greenville, Sir Arthur Slanning, and the
loyal troops in Dorsetshire: Upon this, he makes long marches to
overtake, and intercept them, pretending to fight them, joyn'd, or
not joyn'd; but my Lord Wilmot advancing with 1500 horse of the
king's best troops, joyn'd the western forces at the Devizes, and
facing about upon Waller, met him upon Roundway Down, not far
from St. Ann's Hill, mentioned above.

As I said, he who was seeking out his enemy, must himself be
easy to be found, and therefore they soon came together; for though
Waller seeing too late, that he was in an error, would have been
glad to have got off without fighting, yet seeing the king's troops
advance in full march to attack him, boldly drew up in order of
battle, and marched forward to meet them: Upon which ensued an
obstinate, and very bloody, fight; for Waller was brave, and his
men had been enur'd to victory, especially his infantry, and though
they were gallantly attacked by Colonel Slanning, and Greenville,
the latter of whom was slain, yet they stood their ground, and could
not be broken, but rather gain'd upon the Royalists: But the Lord
Wilmot charging with an irresistable fury at the head of the cavalry,
the rebel horse were broken, and put into confusion, a body of
Wilmot's horse pushing them quite out of the field: Lord Wilmot
then falling with the like fury upon the rear of the foot, while the
king's foot lay hard upon them in the front: They were, at last,
broken also; and, in a word, quite overthrown: And there being
no way to escape the horse, upon an open wild down, as that is,
they were most of them cut in pieces, or taken prisoners. All their
cannon and baggage were also taken, with their arms and ammuni-
tion; and Waller himself, with great difficulty, escaped. This was
in the month of August, 1643.

From this action, as I said, this place was ever after called
Runaway-Down, instead of Roundway-Down.

At Newbery there was another, or rather a double scene of
blood; for here were two obstinate, and hard fought, battles,
at two several times, between the king's army, and the Parlia-
ment's, the king being present at them both, and both fought
almost upon the same spot of ground. In these two battles,
said an old experienced soldier, that served in the king's ^army,
there was more generalship shewn on both sides, than in any
other battle through the whole course of the war; his meaning
was, That the generals, on both sides, shewed the most exquisite
skill in the managing, posting, bringing up, and drawing off

288 DEFOE'S TOUR

their troops; and as the men fought with great bravery on both
sides, so the generals, and officers, shewed both their bravery,
and their judgment. In the first of these battles, the success
was doubtful, and both sides pretended to the advantage: In
the last, the king's army had apparently the worst of it, and
yet the king, in a very few days, with a great body of horse,
fetch'd off his cannon, which he had, in the close of the battle,
thrust into Dunington Castle, and carried them away to Oxford,
the head quarter of his army, or his place of arms, as it would
be called now; and this he did in the sight of the victorious army,
facing them at the same time, with a body of six thousand
horse, and they, on the other hand, did not think fit to draw
out to attack him. That retreat, in point of honour, was equal
to a victory, and gave new courage, as well as reputation, to
the king's troops. Indeed the Parliament's army was out-
general'd in that part; for as they had beaten the king's army
out of the field, and obliged them to shelter their train of
artillery and carriages in the castle, which was in itself a place
of no great strength; they ought immediately, even the same
night, to have invested the place, and posted their army so,
as to cover the siege; in which case, the cannon, and all that
was in the castle, had been their own; for though the king had
indeed, a gallant body of horse, and superior to the Parliament
cavalry by almost three thousand, yet his best regiments of
foot had been roughly handled in the battle, and some of them
quite cut in pieces; so that his majesty would not have been in
condition to have attacked them in their posts, in order to have
raised the siege.

But this is not my business: This town of Newbery is an
antient cloathing town, though, now, little of that part remains
to it; but it retains still a manufacturing genius, and the people
are generally imployed in making shalloons, a kind of stuff,
which, though it be used only for the lineing and insides of
mens cloaths, for women use but little of it, nor the men for
any thing but as above, yet it becomes so generally worn, both
at home and abroad, that it is increased to a manufacture by
itself, and is more considerable, than any single manufacture of
stuffs in the nation. This imploys the town of Newbery, as
also, Andover, another town on the side of Wiltshire, about
twelve miles from it, and abundance of other towns, in other
counties of England, of which I shall speak in their place.

And, having mentioned Andover, though out of the road
that I was in, I must digress to tell you, that the town of

WILTSHIRE 289

Andover lies on the very edge of the downs which I have so
often mentioned, and is in the road from Newbery to Salisbury,
as it is from London to Taunton, and all the manufacturing
part of Somersetshire; 'tis a handsom town, well built, populous,
and much inrich'd by the manufacture, as above, and may be
called a thriving town: It sends two members to Parliament,
and is an antient corporation.

But the chief reason of my making this digression, is to
mention, that within a mile, or thereabouts, of this town, at
the place where the open down country begins, is Wey-Hill,
where the greatest fair for sheep is kept, that this nation can
shew. I confess, though I once saw the fair, yet I could make
no estimate of tHe number brought thither for sale; but asking
the opinion of a grasier, who had used to buy sheep there, he
boldly answered, There were many hundred thousands. This
being too general, I press'd him farther; at length he said, He
believed there were five hundred thousand sheep sold there in
one fair. Now, tho' this might, I believe, be too many, yet 'tis
sufficient to note, that there are a prodigious quantity of sheep
sold here; nor can it be otherwise, if it be considered, that the
sheep sold here, are not for immediate killing, but are generally
ewes for store sheep for the fanners, and they send for them
from all the following counties, Berks, Oxford, Bucks, Bedford,
Hertford, Middlesex, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex: The custom of
these farmers, is, to send one farmer in behalf of (perhaps)
twenty, and so the sheep come up together, and they part
them when they come home. These ewes have alsc this property,
that they generally bring two lambs at a time. What weathers
are bought here, are carried off by the farmers, who have
feeding grounds, in order to fat them for Trilling; but they are
but few compared to the ewes.

But to go back to Newbery: Not to insist upon the famous
Jack of Newbery, who was so great a clothier, that when King
James met his waggons loaden with cloths going to London,
and inquiring whose they were, was answered by them all, They
were Jack of Newbery's, the king returned, if the story be
true, That this Jack of Newbery was richer than he: But not
to insist upon this man's story, which is almost grown fabulous,
yet another story is fact, and to be proved, viz. That this is
one of the two legatee towns (as they were called) in the will of
the late famous Mr. Kenrick, who being the son of a clothier of
Newbery, and afterwards a merchant in London, left four
thousand pounds to Newbery, and seven thousand five hundred

2 9 o DEFOE'S TOUR

pounds to Reading, to incourage the cloathing trade, and set
the poor at work, besides other gifts of extraordinary value to
the poor ; as such. This gentleman I shall have occasion to men-
tion again, and therefore I say no more now, only, that his
eflSgie, or picture, was to be seen, before the Fire, in S. Chris-
topher's Church in Thread Needle Street, London, where he is
buried, and where the benefaction he left for prayers every
morning at six a clock, winter and summer, in that church, is
still injoyed, and the prayers performed there accordingly: As
likewise, it is at Reading, and at Newbery.

This extraordinary will is to be seen at large in Stow's Survey
of London, to which I refer, and which it is well worth the
reader's while to look over, the like not being heard of in Eng-
land, before. It seems he died a batchelor, or, at least, without
children, and his legacies, all in ready money, cannot amount
to less than forty thousand to fifty thousand pounds, besides
what might be included in the general clause of leaving all the
rest of his estate to him who he made his universal heir; which
estate, as I have heard, amounted to a very great value. That
forty or fifty thousand pounds also, being considered at the
time it was left, might well be rated at four times the value, as
the rate of things goes now, it being in the year 1624. What
improvement the town of Newbery, or the town of Reading,
has made of the great sums he left to their management, that
I did not inquire into.

Near this town of Newbery, the late Earl of Craven built
a very stately pile of buildings for his own dwelling, called
Spine; but as it was never quite finished, so I do not understand,
that his lordship ever came to live in it, and, within these few
years, it was, by a sudden fire, which no-body can, or no-body
will, tell how it began, burnt down to the ground. It was reported,
the old lord built this magnificent palace, for such it really
was, at a time when he (flatter'd himself, at least, with expecta-
tion, and) had hopes of marrying Madam Royal, as she was
then called, the Queen of Bohemia, sister to King Charles I.
who was then a widow, and lived under the shadow of the
English Court; but being frustrated afterwards in that view,
his lordship went no farther in his building.

Here it was that the vanguard, or first line of the Prince of
Orange's army, was posted, when the Irish dragoons, who were
posted in Reading, finding they should be attacked in a few
days, had put the town's people into such a fright, by threatening
to burn and plunder the town, and cut all the peoples throats,

BERKSHIRE 291

that they sent express messengers to the Dutch general officer
Grave Van Nassau for help; who sent them a detachment of
but two hundred and eighty dragoons, though the troops hi
the town were near seven hundred men. What success they
met with, I shall mention presently.

The next town of note, I say, is Reading, a very large and
wealthy town, handsomly built, the inhabitants rich, and
driving a very great trade. The town lies on the River Kennet,
but so near the Thames, that the largest barges which they
use, may come up to the town bridge, and there they have
wharfs to load, and unload them. Their chief trade is by this
water-navigation to and from London, though they have neces-
sarily a great trade into the country, for the consumption of
the goods which they bring by their barges from London, and
particularly coals, salt, grocery wares, tobacco, oyls, and all
heavy goods.

They send from hence to London by these barges, very great
quantities of malt, and meal, and these are the two principal
articles of their loadings, of which, so large are those barges,
that some of them, as I was told, bring a thousand, or twelve
hundred quarters of malt at a time, which, according to
the ordinary computation of tonnage in the freight of other
vessels, is from a hundred, to an hundred and twenty ton,
dead weight.

They also send very great quantities of timber from Reading;
for Berkshire being a very-well wooded county, and the River
Thames a convenient conveyance for the timber, they send
most of it, and especially the largest and fairest of the timber,
to London, which is generally bought by the shipwrights in the
river, for the building merchant ships; as also, the like trade
of timber is at Henley, another town on the Thames, and at
Maidenhead, of which by itself.

Here was a large manufacture of sail-cloth set up in this
town, by the late Sir Owen Buckingham, Lord Mayor of London,
and many of the poor people were, profitably (to them) imployed
in it; but Sir Owen himself dying, and his son being unhappily
killed in a duel, a little while after, that manufacture died also.

There is, however, still a remnant of the woollen manufacture
here; I say a remnant, because this was once a very considerable
cloathing town, much greater than it is now; and this town, as
well as Newbery, and principally before Newbery, has injoyed
the munificent legacies of that generous merchant I mentioned
before, I mean Mr. Kenrick, who left them 75007. to set the

292 DEFOE'S TOUR

poor at work, and encourage the cloathing trade. How they
manage for the poor, that they can give the best account of.

Mr. Cambden's continuator, Dr. Gibson, says, there was once
a hundred and forty master-clothiers in this one town; but
that now, they are almost all gone. During the civil wars in
England, this town was strongly fortified, and the remains of
the bastions, and other works are still to be seen; but the
Royalists abandoning it afterwards, it was possessed by the
Parliament, soon after the battle at Newbery.

There are three churches, and two large meeting houses in
this town, besides that of the Quakers; and the town, Cambden
calls it a little city, is said to contain about eight thousand
people, including a little hamlet at the bridge over the Thames.

Here was once a most famous monastery, founded by King
Henry I. younger son of William the Conqueror, who lies
buried in it with his queen, and his daughter Maud; of whom
it was said, She was a king's daughter, a king's wife, and a king's
mother, but herself no queen; this is made out, in that she was
daughter to Henry I. wife to the Emperor of Germany, and
mother to King Henry II. so she was an empress, but not a
queen. This abbey is now so demolished, that scarce any remains
of it are found, or the place of it known.

As I have noted above, it was here that the Dutch with two
hundred and eighty horse and dragoons, attacked the forces of
the late King James, in aid of the distress'd town's-men, who
they threatened to murther and plunder that very day. It was
on a Sunday morning, that the Irish dragoons had resolved on
the design'd mischief, if they really intended it: In order to it,
they posted a guard at the principal church in the piazza there,
and might, indeed, easily have locVd all the people in, and have
cut their throats; also they placed a company of foot in the
church-yard of another church, over-against the Bear Inn; so
that if they really did not intend to massacre the people, as their
officers said they did not, yet that way of posting their men,
joyn'd to the loud oaths and protestations, that they would do
it, made it look as like such a design, as any thing unexecuted,
or unattempted, could do.

In this posture things stood when the Dutch entered the
town: The Irish had placed a centinel on the top of the steeple
of the great church, with orders, if he saw any troops advance,
to fire his piece, and ring the bell; the fellow, being surprised
with the sight, for he discover*d the Dutch but a little before
they reached the town, fired his musquet, but forgot to ring

BERKSHIRE 293

the bell, and came down. However, his firing gave the alarm
sufficiently, and the troops in the town, who were all under
arms before, whether for the design'd execution, or not, I will
not determine; but, I say, being under arms before, they had
little more to do, but to post their troops, which they did with
skill enough, being commanded by Sir John Lanier, an experi-
enced officer, and colonel of a regiment of horse in Kong James's
army; and had the men done their duty, they might easily have
repuls'd the few troops that attacked them; but the Dutch
entering the town in two places, one by the ordinary road from
Newbery, and the other by the Broad Street near where the
horse-fair is kept, forc'd both the posts, and entered the market
place, where the main body of the Irish troops were drawn up.

The first party of the Dutch found a company of foot drawn
up in the church-yard over-against the Bear Inn, and a troop
of dragoons in the Bear Inn yard; the dragoons hearing the
Dutch were at hand, their officer bravely drew them out of the
inn yard, and faced the Dutch in the open road, the church-
yard wall being lined with musquetiers to flank the street; the
Dutch, who came on full gallop, fell in upon the dragoons,
sword in hand, and with such irresistable fury, that the Irish
were immediately put into confusion, and after three or four
minutes bearing the charge, they were driven clear out of the
street. At the very same instant, another party of the Dutch
dragoons, dismounting, entered the church-yard, and the whole
body posted there, fled also, with little or no resistance, not
sufficient, indeed, to be called resistance. After this, the dragoons,
mounting again, forced their squadrons, and entered the market
place.

Here, the troops being numerous, made two or three regular
discharges; but finding themselves charged in the rear by the
other Dutchmen, who had by this time entered the said Broad
Street, they not knowing the strength, or weakness of their
enemy, presently broke, and fled by all the ways possible.
Sir John Lanier, having a calash and six horses, got away with
the first, though he was twice headed by a Dutch trooper, who
endeavoured to shoot one of the horses, but miss'd his shot, so
the colonel got away.

The Dutch having cleared the town, pursued some of them
as far as Twyford, and such was the terror that they were in,
that a person, from whom I had this part of the relation, told
me, he saw one Dutch trooper chase twelve of the Irish dragoons
to the river near Twyford, and ride into the water a good way

294 DEFOE'S TOUR

after them; nor durst Sir John Lanier's regiment of horse, and
Sir John Fenwick's, and a third, whose colonel I do not re-
member, advance to relieve their friends, though they, having
had the alarm, stood drawn up on the hill on Twyford side of
the river, where they might see by what a contemptible number
their numerous party was pursued; for there were not above
five and forty, or fifty at most, of the Dutch, that pursued about
three hundred of the Irish dragoons to Twyford.

Thus the town of Reading was delivered from the danger
they were threatned with, and which they as really expected,
as they expected the sun would rise. It is true, the Irish officers
denied afterwards, that there was any such design, or that they
intended to offer the people any violence; but it is true, that
several of their soldiers confess'd it, and gave private intimations
of it, to the people in the houses where they quartered, especially
some that had been kindly treated in their quarters, and had
a little more gratitude and humanity than the rest.

I cannot omit to observe one thing here, to which I was an
eye-witness, and which will resolve a difficulty that to this
day has puzzled the understandings of a great many people,
if not of the whole nation; namely, That here began the universal
alarm that spread over the whole kingdom (almost at the same
time) of the Irish being coming to cut every bodies throats:
The brief account of which, because it has something curious
in it, I believe will be agreeable to you. The state of it is thus:

As the terror which the threatnings of these Irishmen had
brought upon the whole town of Reading, obliged the magis-
trates, and chief of the inhabitants, to apply to the Prince of
Orange's army for immediate help, so you cannot doubt, but
that many of the inhabitants fled for their lives by all the ways
that they could; and this was chiefly in the night; for in the
day, the soldiers, who had their eyes every where, stopped
them, and would not permit them to stir, which still increased
their terror.

Those that got away, you may be sure, were in the utmost
fright and amazement, and they had nothing less in their
mouths, but that the Irish would (and by that time had) burnt
the town, and cut the throats of all the people, men, women,
and children. I was then at Windsor, and in the very interval
of all this fright, King James being gone, and the army retreated
from Salisbury, the Lord Feversham calls the troops together,
and causing them to lay down their arms, disbands them, and
gives them leave, every man, to go whither they would.

BERKSHIRE 295

The Irish dragoons, which had fled from Reading, rallied
at Twyford, and having not lost many of their number (for
there were not above twelve men killed) they marched on
for Maidenhead, swearing, and cursing, after most soldierly a
manner, that they would burn all the towns where-ever they
came, and cut the throats of all the people. However, whether
it was, that they thought themselves too near the Dutch at
Maidenhead, or what else was the matter, they did not offer to
take quarters at Maidenhead, the town also being full of King
James's troops, so they marched on for Colebrook, blustering in
the same manner, of what they would do when they came there.
The town of Colebrook had notice of their coming, and how
they had publickly threatened to burn the town, and murther
all the people; but, happily for them, they had quartered there
a regiment of Scots foot, of those regiments which King James
had caused to march from Scotland to his aid on this occasion;
and they had with them, as was the usage of all the foot in those
times, two pieces of cannon, that is to say, field-pieces, and they
stood just in the market-place, pointing westward to the street
where these gentlemen were to come.

The people of Colebrook applied immediately to the Scots
colonel, whose name I am very sorry I cannot remember, because
it is to his honour that I should mention it, and begged his
protection. The colonel calling together a council of his officers,
immediately resolved, they would make good their quarters,
unless they received orders from their superior officers to quit
them, and that they would defend the town from plunder; and
upon this, immediately the drums beat to arms, and the regi-
ment came together in a few moments: It was in the depth of
winter, and, by consequence, was night, and being a wet day,
the evening was exceeding dark, when some advanced centinels
gave notice, that they heard the drums beat the dragoons
march, at some distance upon the road.

Upon this the colonel ordered a lieutenant, with thirty
musqueteers, to make an advanced guard at the extreme part
of the town, and he was supported by another party of forty
men, most pikes, at a small distance, who were to advance upon
a signal; and if these last should ingage, the drums of the whole
regiment were to beat a march, and half the battalion, to advance
with the two pieces of cannon.

It was near ten a clock at night before the dragoons reached
the town, when the two advanced dragoons, which, by the
discipline at that time, always rode at a distance from the

L 820

296 DEFOE'S TOUR

regiment, were challenged by the centinels placed by the
lieutenant, as above; upon which they gave notice to the
regiment, who immediately halted, and an officer, with some
dragoons (they could not tell how many, because it was dark)
came up, and demanded, Who they were that challenged? the
centinel called his corporal, and he the serjeant, with three
files of musqueteers, and they told the officer what regiment
they belong 3 d to, and that they had orders to stop any troops
from entering the town, 'till their colonel should be acquainted
with it, and give farther orders.

The dragoons, as the ground would admit, drew up in front,
and their officers began to huff and threaten, that they were the
king's troops, and within the line of the army; that they must
have quarters in the town, and ought not to be refused by their
own side.

By this time the lieutenant came up also: He gave the officer
of dragoons very good words, and told him, He knew too well
what belonged to the duty of a subaltern officer, to blame him
for doing his duty; but that the regiment was under arms, and
the colonel at the head of them in the market-house, and he
would immediately send to him for orders, and doubted not,
but that the colonel would give them quarters in the town.
The dragoons, not satisfied with this civil usage, threatened,
swore, rag'd, and damning the colonel, and the regiment,
though not present, said they would have quarters without
asking leave of any man, and the officer turning about to a
sergeant, bid him go back, and cause the regiment to advance.

The lieutenant told him calmly, He was sorry to see him act
so; but if that was his resolution, he was ready for him, and
immediately called out to his sergeant to give the signal to the
next party to advance, and told the officer of dragoons, that
if he stirred one foot forward, or any of his men, he would fire
upon them immediately. The forty men advanced, and in two
minutes after, they could hear the drums of the regiment beat
the Scots march.

Upon this, the dragoons halted again, and the major of the
dragoons advancing to the parlee, the lieutenant colonel of
the foot, was also come up to the lieutenant's party, with the
forty men, and with the colonel's answer to the demand of
quarters; namely, That if the dragoons had any orders in
writing from the general for quartering in the town, or for
marching that way, he was very ready to give them admittance;
but if not, they were his quarters, and he would defend them to

BERKSHIRE 297

the last man, ^and no-body should come in there, especially at
that time of night.

The dragoons, however, insulted and menac'd the major
also, and^that at such a rate, that he gave orders immediately
to acquaint the colonel of it, who instantly advanced, in full
march, with the whole regiment, having about one hundred
links lighted to let them see the way, the night being exceeding
dark.

When the dragoons saw this, and having no stomach to
engage, they desisted; but raged and stormed at such a rate,
as I cannot express, and taking the road to Stanes, swore, they
would go thither, and burn the town, and kill man, woman
and child.

Those blusters were so loud, and the fellows, by nation, such
as from whom it might be expected, as put the people of Colt-
brook, the fright they had been in for themselves being a little
over, into a second concern for their neighbours at Stanes, and
some of them shewed the concern to be so real, that they sent
express upon express to Stanes, to acquaint the people there of
their danger, knowing there was, at that time, only two com-
panies of foot, of Colonel 's regiment, in the town. When

these messengers came there, they found the people already
alarmed by others, who had come from the same town of Cole-
brook, in the first fright, with the news, that the Irish were
coming to burn the said town of Colebrook, and that, by that
time, they did not question but they had done it, and they
were surprized to hear now, that it was not done; but upon the
arriving of these messengers, bringing word, that they had
burnt Colebrook, but for the assistance of the Scots regiment ;
and that they were coming to Stanes, and swore, they would
kill man, woman and child; it is impossible to express the con-
sternation of the people: Away they run out of the town, dark,
and rainy, and midnight as it was, some to Kingston, some over
the heath to Hownslow, and Brentford, some to Egham, and
some to Windsor, with the dreadful news; and by that time they
reached those places, their fears had turned their story from
saying, they would burn and kill, to they had burned and
killed, and were coming after you to do the like.

The same alarm was carried by others from Colebrook to
Uxbridge; for thither the dragoons were for marching at first;
and thus, some one way, and some another, it spread like the
undulations of the water in a pond, when a flat stone is cast
upon the surface: From Brentford and Kingston, and from

298 DEFOE'S TOUR

Uxbridge > it came severally, and by different roads, to London,
and so, as I may say, all over England; nor is it wonderful,
that it seemed to be all over the nation in one day, which was
the next after this beginning; Fear gave wings to the news, no
post could carry it as it flew from town to town, and still every
messenger had two articles with him, i. Not that such and
such towns were to be burnt and plundered by them; but that
they were already burnt; and 2. That the Irish were at their
heels to do the like.

This, I think, is a clear account of this alarm, and what can
be more natural? Colebrook was not the case, for where-ever the
Colebrook men came, they were asked, If their town was down?
I rode the next morning to Maidenhead: At Slough they told
me, Maidenhead was burnt, and Uxbridge, and Reading, and
I know not how many more, were destroy'd; and when I came
to Reading, they told me, Maidenhead and Okingham were
burnt, and the like. From thence I went to Henley, where the
Prince of Orange, with the second line of his army, entered that
very afternoon, and there they had had the same account, with
the news of King James's flight; and thus it spread every way
insensibly. The manner is too recent in memory, to need my
giving any description of it.

My next stage from Reading, was to Great Marlow in Buck-
inghamshire, which, though not in the direct road, yet lying
on the banks of the river of Thames, is, in my course, proper
enough to be spoken of, and is particularly worth notice foi
several things.

1. It is a town of very great embarkation on the Thames,
not so much for goods wrought here, (for the trade of the town
is chiefly in bone-lace) but for goods from the neighbouring
towns, and particularly, a very great quantity of malt, and
meal, is brought hither from High-Wickham, a large market

town, about miles off, which is one of the greatest corn

markets on this side of England, and lies on the road from
London to Oxford.

2, Between High Wickham and Marlow, is a little river called
the Loddon, on which are a great many mills, and particularly
corn mills, and paper mills; the first of these, grind and dress
the wheat, and then the meal is sent to Marlow, and loaded
on board the barges for London: And the second makes great
quantities of printing paper, and that, very good of its kind,
and cheap, such as generally is made use of in printing our news

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 299

papers, journals, &c. and smaller pamphlets; but not much fine,
or large, for bound books, or writing.

3. On the river of Thames, just by the side of this town,
though on the other bank, are three very remarkable mills,
which are called the Temple-Mills, and are called also, the
Brass-Mills, and are for making Bisham Abbey Battery Work,
as they call it, viz. brass kettles, and pans, &c. of all sorts. They
have first a foundary, where, by the help of lapis caliminaris,
they convert copper into brass, and then, having cast the brass
in large broad plates, they beat them out by force of great
hammers, wrought by the water mills, into what shape they
think fit for sale. Those mills went on by the strength of a good
stock of money in a company or partnership, and with very
good success, 'till at last, they turned it into what they call
a Bubble, brought it to Exchange-Alley, set it a stock-jobbing
in the days of our South Sea madness, and brought it up to be
sold at one hundred pounds per share, whose intrinsick worth
was perhaps ten pounds, 'till, with the fall of all those things
together, it fell to nothing again. Their treasurer, a tradesman
in London, failed, having misapply^ about thirty thousand
pounds of their money, and then, as it is usual where want of
success goes before, quarelling among themselves followed after,
and so the whole affair sunk into a piece of mere confusion and
loss, which otherwise was certainly a very beneficial undertaking.

4. Next to these are two mills, both extraordinary in them-
selves, one for making of thimbles, a work excellently well
finished, and which performs to admiration, and another for
pressing of oyl from rape-seed, and flax-seed, both which, as
I was told, turn to very good accouut to the proprietors.

Here is also brought down a vast quantity of beech wood,
which grows in the woods of Buckinghamshire more plentifully
than in any other part of England. This is the most useful wood,
for some uses, that grows, and without which, the city of London
would be put to more difficulty, than for any thing of its kind
in the nation.

1. For fellies for the great carrs, as they are called, which
ply in London streets for carrying of merchandizes, and for
cole-carts, dust-carts, and such like sorts of voiture, which
are not, by the city laws, allowed to draw with shod wheels,
or wheels tyr'd with iron.

2. For billet wood for the king's palaces, and for the plate
and flint glass houses, and other such nice purposes.

3. Beech quarters for divers uses, particularly chairmakers,

300 DEFOE'S TOUR

and turnery wares. The quantity of this, brought from hence,
is almost incredible, and yet so is the country overgrown with
beech in those parts, that it is bought very reasonable, nor is
there like to be any scarcity of it for time to come.

At Bisham, over against this town, was formerly an abbey,
and the remains of it are still to be seen there: The estate
belongs to the antient family of the name of Hobby. Some of
the heads of this family, were very eminent in former days,
particularly Sir William Hobby, and Sir Edward Hobby, the
latter having been imployed by Queen Elizabeth in the most
important foreign negotiations. Their monuments, with those
of their ladies, and sons, are now to be seen, and well worth
seeing they are, in the little church of Bisham. The seat of the
family, is now in Dorsetshire, where Sir Thomas Hobby is still
living; but they are generally all brought hither, when they
die, to be buried with their ancestors.

A little higher, on the same side of the river, is Hurley, an
antient seat of the Lord Lovelace, and that family being extinct,
it came, by the daughter and heiress, to Sir Henry Johnson of
Blackwall, near Ratcliff, who originally was only a shipwright,
or master-builder, at the great yard and dock there, of which
I shall speak in their place. This lady left only one daughter,
married to the Earl of Stafford, and who now enjoys the Hurly
estate, in the right of the above marriages of the daughters.

There are two other towns on the Thames, which I have
already mentioned, viz. Henly and Maidenhead, which have
little or nothing remarkable in them; but that they have great
business also, by the trade for malt and meal and timber for
London, which they ship, or load, on their great barges for
London, as the other towns do.

And now I am, by just degrees, come to Windsor, where
I must leave talking of trade, river, navigation, meal, and
malt, and describe the most beautiful, and most pleasantly
situated castle, and royal palace, in the whole isle of Britain.

Windsor Castle, founded, as some say, by William the
Conqueror, if there was any thing in that part, was at least
rebuilt, by Edward III. But the truth of the story is this,
William the Conqueror did pitch upon it as a pleasant situa-
tion, in a delightful sporting country, and agreeable to him,
who delighted much in hunting; and, as he says of it, a place
fitted for the entertainment of kings, and therefore treated with
the Abbot of Westminster for an exchange, and so took posses-

BERKSHIRE 301

sion of it. He also had several little lodges, or hunting houses,
in the forest adjoyning, and frequently lodg'd, for the con-
veniency of his game, in a house which the monks before injoy'd,
near, or in the town of Windsor, for the town is much more
antient than the castle, and was an eminent pass upon the
Thames in the reign of the Saxon kings: But to pass over the
antiquity or history of the town, this is certain, That King
Edward III. took an extreme liking to the place, because of
its beautiful situation, and pleasing prospect, which, indeed,
is not to be out-done in any part of the kingdom: Here, at
length, the king resolved to fix his summer residence, and
himself laid out the plan of a most magnificent palace, the
same, as to the outward form and building, as we now see it;
for whatever has been done for beautifying, altering, or amending
the inside and apartments, there has nothing been added to
the building itself, except that noble terras, which runs under
the north front, and leads to the green on the park, at the east
side, or end of it, along which east end, the fine lodgings, and
royal apartments, were at first built, all the north part being
then taken up in rooms of state, and halls for publick balls, &c.

The house itself was, indeed, a palace, and without any
appearance of a fortification; but when the building was brought
on to the slope of the hill on the town side, the king added
ditches, ramparts, the round tower, and several addenda of
strength; and so it was immediately called a castle.

The pretence which some made to an old story, that William
of Wickham built this castle, is a story so evidently fabulous,
and so plainly detected, that the very relations which pretend
to it, discover the contrary; owning, that the king was so
incensed against him, but for a suggestion, that he had a project
of assuming the honour of being the founder, that it had like
to have cost William all his interest in the king's favour, which,
at that time, was very great; and the Duke of Lancaster, who
was his irreconcilable enemy, took the advantage of prompt-
ing the king to make that suggestion; but he cleared himself
by denying, that he ever made any pretence to being the
founder, only put this construction upon the words, That the
money, and the reputation he had gained by building that
castle for the king, had been the making of him. The words
were these,

THIS MADE WICKHAM.

These words, they say, he had caused to be cut on a stone in

3 o2 DEFOE'S TOUR

the inner wall of the little tower, which, from him, is to this
day called Winchester Tower.

But to pass over this fiction, this is certain, King Edward was
the founder of the whole work, and the plan of it was much of
his own contrivance; but he committed the overseeing, and
direction of the works, to William of Wickham, or, if you
please, William of Wickham was the Sir Christopher Wren of
that Court; for William was then a layman, not having had
a liberal education, but had a good genius, a mighty lover of
building, and had applied his head much that way; nor, indeed,
does the building itself fail to do the head, or master-builder, a
great deal of honour; for in all the decorations and ornaments,
which have been made since by the princes who have liked
Windsor best, they have found no occasion to alter any of the
front, or to pull down, or build up, add, or diminish, except it
be some small matter at the entrance to the great stair-case,
the kitchen, and offices below stairs, and the like; but the
great north, and east fronts, the square of the inner court, the
great gates at the entering from the town, with the Round
Tower, and the walls annexed, are all standing in the very
form in which King Edward III. left them.

The only addition in the inside, is a fine equestrian statue of
King Charles II. which stands over the great well, sunk, as
may be supposed, in the first building, for the supply of the
castle with water, and in which was an engine for raising the
water, notwithstanding the great depth, by very little labour;
the contrivance and performance done by the great Sir Samuel
Morland, one of the best-natur'd mechanicks of his time, and
as good a mathematician.

On the outside was added, the terrace walk, built by Queen
Elizabeth, and where she usually walked for an hour every
day before her dinner, if not hindered by windy weather, which
she had a peculiar aversion to; for as to rainy weather, it would
not always hinder her; but she rather loved to walk in a mild,
calm rain, with an umbrella over her head.

This walk was really a magnificent work; for as it is raised
on the side of a precipice, or steep declivity of the hill, so that
hill was necessarily cut down a very great depth to bring the
foundation to a flat equal to the breadth, which was to be
formed above. From the foundation it was raised by solid stone
work, of a vast thickness, with cross walls of stone, for banding
the front, and preventing any thrust from the weight of earth
within. Then this work was all to be filled up again within,

BERKSHIRE 303

after all was first taken out, was thrown down the front of the hill,
to push out the precipices still farther, that it might be the same
slope from the terrace, as it was before from the foot of the castle*

This noble walk is covered with fine gravel, and has cavities,
with dreins, to carry off all the water; so that let it rain as it
will, not a drop of it is seen to rest on the walk, but it is dry,
hard, and fit to walk on immediately. The breadth of this walk
is very spacious on the north side, on the east side it is narrower;
but neither at Versailles, or at any of the royal palaces in France,
or at Rome, or Naples, have I ever seen any thing like it. The
grand seignior's terrace in the outer court of the Seraglio,
next the sea, is the nearest to it, that I have read of, and yet
not equal to it, if I may believe the account of those who have
seen it; for that, I acknowledge, I have not seen. At the north-
east corner of this terrace, where it turns south, to run on by
the east side of the castle, there are steps, by which you go off
upon the plain of the park, which is kept smooth as a carpet,
and on the edge of which, the prospect of the terrace is doubled
by a vista, south over the park, and quite up to the great park,
and towards the forest. Here also is a small seat, fit for one,
or but two at the most, with a high back, and cover for the
head, which turns so easily, the whole being fix'd on a pin of
iron, or brass, of strength sufficient, that the persons who sit
in it, may turn it from the wind, and which way soever the
wind blows, or how hard soever, yet they may sit in a perfect
tranquillity, and enjoy a compleat calm. This is said also, to be
Queen Elizabeth's own invention, who, though she delighted
in being abroad in the air, yet hated to be ruffled with the
wind. It is also an admirable contrivance for the person sitting
in it, to shelter himself from the sun.

This lofty terrace makes the castle quite another thing, and
gives an egress to the people within to the park, and to a most
beautiful walk, which King Edward III. nor his successors for
some hundreds of years, knew nothing of, all their prospect
being from the windows of the castle.

On that side of the building which looks out upon the terrace,
are all the royal apartments, King Edward Ill's were on the
east side. The east side is now allotted to great officers of state,
who are obliged to attend whenever the Court removes to
Windsor, such as the Lord Treasurers, Secretaries of State,
Lord High Chancellor, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, and the
like; and below they have proper offices for business, if they
please to order any to be done there.

* L 820

304 DEFOE'S TOUR

You mount into the royal apartments, by several back stairs;
but the publick way is up a small ascent to a flat, or half pace
(for I love to make my account speak English) where there are
two entries of state, by two large stair-cases, one on the left
hand to the royal apartments, and the other, on the right, to
St. George' s-Hall, and the royal chapel.

Before the enterance to these, on either side, you pass through
the guard chambers, where you see the walls furnished with
arms, and the king's Beef-eaters, as they call the yeomen of
the guard, keep their station, or, as it may be called, their main
guard. These rooms lead either way, towards the fine lodgings,
or towards St. George's Hall, which you please.

In the royal lodgings, there have been so many alterations
of furniture, that there can be no entering upon the particular
description. In one of those lodgings, the late Queen Mary set
up a rich atlas, and chints bed, which, in those times, was
invaluable, the chints being of Masslapatan, on the coast of
Coromandel, the finest that was ever seen before that time in
England; but the rate of those things have suffered much
alteration since that time. Also here was, some time before
that, the picture of the late Dutchess of Portsmouth at full
length, a noble piece, and of which 'twas said, King Charles II.
should say, 'Twas the finest painting, of the finest woman in
Christendom; but our English ladies of Queen Mary's court,
were of another opinion, and the Gallery of Beauties, as it
was called, which her majesty placed in the water gallery at
Hampton Court, shews several as good faces, and as good
painting.

In the chimney-piece of one of these apartments, is a piece
of needle-work exquisitely fine, performed, as they say, by the
Queen of Scots, during the time of her confinement in Fotherin-
gay Castle. There are several family pieces in the chimney-
pieces, and other parts of those lodgings, that are valuable,
because of the persons they represent: But the finery of painting
is to come.

These rooms look all out north towards the terrace, and
over part of the finest, and richest, vale in the world; for the
same vale attending the course of the River Thames, with very
little interruption, reaches to, and includes the city of London
east, and the city of Oxford west: The river, with a winding,
and beautiful stream, gliding gently through the middle of it,
and inriching by its navigation, both the land and the people
on every side.

BERKSHIRE 305

It must be confess'd, that, as William the Conqueror expresses
it in his letter to the monks at Windsor, it was a place fit for
the entertainment of kings, so it is; for it seems, by nature, to
be formed for a palace; and for delight; all kinds of pleasure
and convenience, that any country, at least in England, can
afford, are to be found here.

It may be proper here to say something to the beauties and
ornaments of St. George's Hall, though nothing can be said
equal to what the eye would be witness to; 'tis surprizing, at
the first entrance, to see at the upper end, the picture of "King
William on horseback, under him, an ascent with marble steps,
a balustrade, and a half pace, which, formerly, was actually
there, with room for a throne, or chair of state, for the sovereign
to sit on, when on publick days he thought fit to appear in
ceremony.

No man that had seen the former steps or ascent, and had
gone up to the balustrade and throne, as I had done, could
avoid supposing, they were there still; and as on a casual view,
having been absent some years out of the nation, I was going
forward towards the end of the hall, intending to go up the
steps, as I had done formerly, I was confounded, when I came
nearer, to see that the ascent was taken down, the marble steps
gone, the chair of state, or throne, quite away, and that all
I saw, was only painted upon the wall below the king and his
horse; indeed it was so lively, so bright, so exquisitely per-
formed, that I was perfectly deceived, though I had some
pretension to judgment in pictures too; nor was my eye alone
deceived, others were under the same deception, who were
then with me.

When I came to the farther end, and look'd from the throne,
as I called it, down the hall. I was again surprized, though most
agreeably, I confess, viz. The painting on the side of the hall,
which was the representation of Prince Edward's triumph, in
imitation of Caesar's glorious entry into Rome, and which was
drawn marching from the lower end of the room, to the upper,
that is to say, from the door, which is in the corner on the
north side of the hall, was now wholly inverted, and the same
triumph was performed again; but the march turned just the
other way.

That this could be done no other way, but by wiping the
whole work out, and painting it all over again, was easy to
conclude, seeing it was not done upon cloth, but upon the mere
plaister of the wall, as appeared by the salts of the lime in the

306 DEFOE'S TOUR

wall, having work'd out, and spoiled a great piece of the paint;
besides, the nature of the thing forbids; for if it had been a
canvas, turning it would have been impracticable, for then
all the imagery would have stood heels up, unless it had been
carried on to the directly opposite part of the hall, and that
could not be, because there were the windows, looking all
into the inner court of the castle.

The first painting was done by Mr. Varrio, who, after finishing
this work, was entertained for 12 years at Burley House, near
Stamford, by that great lover of art, and particularly of fine
painting, the Earl of Excester: After which King William
entertained him again, and, as they told me, he performed this
second painting of the hall, with greater mastership of hand,
than he had done the first. The painting of the cielings generally
remain, being finished by the same hand in a most exquisite
manner at first.

At the west end of the hall, is the chapel royal, the neatest
and finest of the kind in England; the carv'd work is beyond
any that can be seen in England, the altar-piece is that of the
institution, or, as we may call it, our Lord's first supper. I re-
member, that going with some friends to shew them this mag-
nificent palace, it chanced to be at the time when the Dissenters
were a little uneasy at being obliged to kneel at the Sacrament;
one of my friends, who, as I said, I carried to see Windsor
Castle, was a Dissenter, and when he came into the chapel, he
fix'd his eyes upon the altar-piece with such a fix'd, steady
posture, and held it so long, that I could not but take notice of
it, and asked him, Whether it was not a fine piece? Yes, says
he, it is; but, whispering to me, he added, How can your people
prosecute us for refusing to kneel at the Sacrament? Don't you
see there, that though our Saviour himself officiates, they are
all sitting about the table?

I confess it surprized me, and, at first, I knew not what
answer to make to him; but I told him, That was not a place
for him and I to dispute it, we would talk of it afterwards, and
so we did, but brought it to no conclusion, so 'tis needless to
mention it any more here.

After we had spent some hours in viewing all that was curious
on this side, we came down to the dungeon, or Round Tower,
which goes up a long, but easy, ascent of steps, and is very
high. Here we were obliged to deliver up our swords, but no
where else.

There is nothing curious here: The governor, or constable's

BERKSHIRE 307

lodgings, are very well, and neatly furnished, but nothing
extraordinary, especially they will not look so, after seeing the
fine lodgings, as above. From this tower, you see St. Paul's
Cathedral at London, very plainly: Coming down from hence,
we came into the other court, where is the great Chapel of the
Garter, and the house or college for the poor knights, as they
are called.

The late Duke of Northumberland, who was constable of
this castle, met with a very strange, and uncommon accident
in coming hither from Stanes in his coach; for being benighted,
as we call it in England, the night also very dark, and passing by
a place where there are some houses, tho' not a town, and where
the road goes dose to the river, whether his coachman did not
see the water, or mistook it for the water in the road, I know
not, but he plunged in the horses, coach and all, into the river,
and at a place where the water was exceeding deep, and the
bank steep; so that if help had not come immediately from a
gentleman's house, which was close to the road, the servants
crying out loud enough to alarm them, his grace, and a gentle-
man who was in the coach with him, had unavoidably perished;
and, as it was, he was a considerable time under water, so that
he was in the extremity of danger.

I might go back here to the history of the Order of the Garter,
the institution of which by King Edward III. not only had its
original here, but seems to be seated here, as a native of the
place; and that this is the place where the ceremonies of it, the
instalments, feasts, &c. are always to be performed: But this
is done so fully in other authors, and by so many, that it would
be falling into that error, which I condemn in others, and
making my accounts be, what I resolved, from the beginning,
they should not be; namely, A copy of other men's performances.
I shall only give you out of Mr. Ashmole, a list of the first
knights who had the honour of this Order, and who have been
succeeded by so many kings, dukes, and sovereign princes
abroad, as well as noble-men, and peers of this kingdom at
home. The names of the first knights are as follow.

King Edward III. Ralph, Earl of Stafford,

His Son Edward the Black William Montacute, Earl of

Prince, Salisbury,

Henry, Duke of Lancaster, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March,

Thomas, Earl of Warwick, John de Lysle,

Peers Capitow de la Bouch, Bartholomew Burghersh,

3o8 DEFOE'S TOUR

John de Beauchamp, Hugh Wrotesley,

John de Mohun, Nele Loring,

Hugh Courtenay, John Chandos,

Thomas Holland, James de Audeley,

John de Grey, Otho Holland,

Richard Fitz Simon, Henry Earn,

Miles Stapleton, Sanchet Daubricourt,

Thomas Wale, Walter Paveley, alias Pevrell.

It is true, these were not all noble-men, that is to say, not
all peers, neither does the institution confine the order to such;
but 'tis certain, they were all men of great characters and
stations, either in the army, or in the civil administration, and
such as the sovereign did not think it below him to make his
companions; for so they are called.

The lower court, as I mentioned, of the castle, though not
so beautiful, for the stately lodgings, rooms of state, &c. is
particularly glorious for this fine chapel of the Order, a most
beautiful and magnificent work, and which shews the great-
ness, not only of the Court in those days, but the spirit and
genius of the magnanimous founder. The chapel is not only
fine within, but the workmanship without is extraordinary;
nothing so antient is to be seen so very beautiful. The chapel of
St. Stephen's in Westminster-Abby, called Henry Vllth's
Chapel, and King's College Chapel at Cambridge, built by
Henry VI. are fine buildings; but they are modern, compared
to this, which was begun, as by the inscribed dates upon the
works appears, in the year 1337.

The coats of arms, and the various imagery &c. even inside
and outside, not only of the king, but of several of the first
Knights Companions, are most admirably finished, and the
work has stood out the injury of time to admiration; the beauty
of the building remains without any addition, and, indeed,
requiring none.

'Tis observable, that King Edward owns this chapel was
begun by his ancestors, and some think it was by King Edward I.
and that he himself was baptized in it, and that there was a
castle built by William the Conqueror also: As to the chapel,
which was then called a church, or a convent, King Edward III.
did not pull down the old building intirely, but he added all the
choir to the first model, and several other proper parts for the
purposes intended; as houses and handsome apartments for the
canons, dignitaries, and other persons belonging to the church,

BERKSHIRE 309

which are generally situated on the north side of the square, out
of sight, or rather skreen'd from the common view by the
church itself, which dwellings are, notwithstanding, very good,
and well accommodated for the persons who are possessors of
them; then the king finished it in the manner we now see it:
As for the old castle, the building of William the Conqueror, the
king pulled it intirely down, even to the very foundation,
forming a new building according to the present plan, and
which stood, as above, to the time of King Charles II. without
any alteration.

The establishment for this chapel was very considerable, by
the donation of divers subjects, before it was set apart to be
the chapel of the Order; the Duke of Suffolk in particular, as
appears in Dugdale's Monasticon, gave near three thousand
acres of land, nineteen manors, one hundred seventy messuages
and tofts, and several advowsons of churches to it, which, with
other gifts afterwards, made the revenue above one thousand
pounds a year in those days, which was a prodigious sum, as
money went at that time.

In the choir are the stalls for the knights of the Order, with
a throne for the sovereign; also stalls in the middle of it for
the poor knights pensioners, who live in their house or hospital
on the south side of the square or court which the church
stands in.

Here are to be seen, the banners of the knights who now
enjoy the honour of the Garter: When they die, those banners
are taken down, and the coat of arms of the deceased knight
set up in the place allotted for those arms over the same stall, so
that those coats of arms are a living history, or rather a record
of all the knights that ever have been since the first institution
of the Order, and how they succeeded one another; by which it
appears, that kings, emperors and sovereign princes, have not
thought it below them to accept of the honour of being Knights
Companions of this Order; while, at the same time, it must be
noted to the honour of the English Crown, that our kings have
never thought fit to accept of any of their Orders abroad,
of what kind soever, whether Popish or Protestant; that of
the Cordon Blue, or the Cordon Blanc, the Cordon Noir, or
the Cordon Rouge, the Golden Fleece of Spain, the Holy
Ghost of France, or the Black Eagle of Prussia, or any other;
whereas of the Garter, there is an account by the register
of the Order, that there are reckoned up of this most noble
company,

3 io DEFOE'S TOUR

Eight Emperors of Germany. One Prince of the House of

Three Kings of Sweden. the King of Bohemia, Prince

Five Kings of Denmark. Rupert.

Two Kings of Prussia. One Prince of Denmark,

Three Kings of Spain, Prince George.

Five Princes of Orange. One Bishop of Osnaburg.

Five Kings of France. Five Princes of Lunenburg.

Four Dukes, Peers of France. One Elector of Brandeburg,

Two Noblemen of the House Seven Electors Palatines.

of Duras in France, viz. Two Electors of Saxony.

Galliard de Duras, & Lewis Two Dukes of Lorrain.

de Duras, Earl of Fever- Three Dukes of Wirtemberg.

sham. Two Dukes of Holstein.

One King of Scotland, besides Two Grandees of Spain

James VI. who became Two Dukes de Urbino in Italy.

Sovereign of the Order. One Duke of Savoy.

Five Kings of Portugal. Three Princes of England not

One King of Poland. Kings, viz. Edward the

Two Kings of Naples. Black Prince, the Duke of

One King of Aragon. Gloucester, and Prince Fre-

Three Infants of Portugal. derick.

Several kings, and persons of high rank have been buried
also in this chapel; as Edward IV. and Charles I. Also here is
the family repository, or burying ground of the Dukes of
Beauford, who are a natural branch of the royal family, by
the antient House of Lancaster; and in the chapel where the
vault is there is a very noble monument of the last duke save one.

All the ceremonies observed here in the installment of the
knights, are so perfectly and fully set down in Mr. Ashmole's
History of the Order of the Garter, that nothing can be said, but
what must be a copy from him, which, as above, I studiously
decline, and therefore refer you to him.

Besides the foreign princes, Companions of this famous
Order as above; there is a little gallaxie of English nobility, the
flower of so many Courts, and so many ages, to whose families
the ensigns of the Order have been an honour, and who are
not the least of the honour this Order has to boast of.

In the first institution, there was but one duke, namely,
the great Duke of Lancaster; but as that order of nobility is
since much increased in England, since the days of King
Edward III. so in the present list of knights, we find no less
than fifteen dukes, including the Prince of Wales, who is also Duke
of Cornwall. The list of the present knights are as follow, viz.

BERKSHIRE 311

King GEORGE, Duke of Kingstone,

George Prince of Wales, Duke of Montague,
Duke of York, the king's Duke of Grafton,

brother, Duke of Dorset,

Prince Frederick, Duke of Rutland,
Duke of Cleveland and South- Earl of Lincoln,

ampton, Earl of Pembroke,

Duke of Somerset, Earl of Berkley,

Duke of Richmond, Earl Paulet,

Duke of St. Albans, Earl of Peterborough,

Duke of Devonshire, Earl of Stafford,

Duke of Argyle, Earl of Scarborough,

Duke of Newcastle, Lord Vise. Townshend.
Duke of Kent,

As the upper court and building are fronted with the fine
terrace as above, so the lower court, where this fine chapel
stands, is walled round with a very high wall, so that no build-
ings, if there was room for any, could overlook it, which wall
goes round the west end of the court to the gate, which looking
south, leads into the town, as the gate of the upper court looks
likewise S.E. into the park, which they call the Little Park.

The parks about Windsor are very agreeable, and suitable to
the rest; the little park, which is so, only compared to the great
park, is above three miles round, the great one fourteen, and
the forest above thirty: This park is particular to the Court, the
other are open for riding, hunting, and taking the air for any
gentlemen that please.

The lodges in those parks, are no more lodges, tho' they
retain the name, but palaces, and might pass for such in other
countries; but as they are all eclipsed by the palace itself, so it
need only be added, That those lodges are principally beautified
by the grandeur of the persons to whom the post of rangers
have been assigned, who, having been inriched by other advance-
ments, honours and profitable employments, thought nothing
too much to lay out to beautify their apartments, in a place,
which it was so much to their honour, as well as conveniency,
to reside; such is the lodge, which belongs to Admiral Churchill,
the Dutchess of Marlborough and others.

I cannot leave Windsor, without taking notice, that we
crossed the Thames upon a wooden bridge, for all the bridges
on the river, between London and Oxford, are of timber, for
the conveniency of the barges: Here we saw Eaton College, the

3 i2 DEFOE'S TOUR

finest school for what we call grammar learning, for it extends only
to the humanity class, that is in Britain, or, perhaps, in Europe.

The building, except the great school room, is antient, the
chapel truly Gothick; but all has been repaired, at a very great
expence, out of the college stock, within these few years.

The gardens are very fine, and extended from the college,
down, almost, to the bank of the Thames; they are extremely
well planted, and perfectly well kept.

This college was founded by King Henry VI. a prince muni-
ficent in his gifts, for the encouragement of learning, to profusion;
Witness, besides this noble foundation, that of King's College in
Cambridge, to which the scholars of Eaton are annually removed

This college has a settled revenue of about five thousand
pounds per annum, and maintains as follows.

A provost.

A vice provost, who is also a fellow.
Seven fellows, inclusive of the vice provost.
Seventy scholars on the foundation, besides a full choir for
the chapel, with officers, and servants usual.

The school is divided into the upper and lower, and each into
three classes.

Each school has one master, and each master four assistants,
or ushers.

None are received into the upper school, 'till they can make
Latin verse, and have a tolerable knowledge of the Greek.

In the lower school, the children are received very young,
and are initiated into all school-learning.

Besides the seventy scholars upon the foundation, there are
always abundance of children, generally speaking, of the best
families, and of persons of distinction, who are boarded in the
houses of the masters, and within the college.

The number of scholars instructed here, is from 400 to 550;
but has not been under 400 for many years past.

The elections of scholars for the university out of this school, is
worth taking notice of: It being a time of jubilee to the school.

The election is once every year, and is made on the first
Tuesday in August. In order to the election, there are deputed
from King's College in Cambridge, three persons, viz. The
Provost of King's College for the time being, with one senior,
and one junior poser, fellows of the same college. To these
are joyn'd, on the part of Eaton College, the provost, the vice
provost, and the head master.

BERKSHIRE 313

These calling the scholars of the upper class, called the sixth
class, before them, and examining them in the several parts of
their learning, choose out twelve such as they think best
qualified, and these are entered in a roll, or list, for the university.
The youths thus chosen, are not immediately removed from the
school, but must wait till vacancies fall in the said King's
College, to make room to receive them; and as such vacancies
happen, they are then called up, as they stand in seniority in
the said list, or roll of election.

When a scholar from Eaton, comes to King's College, he is
received upon the foundation, and pursues his studies there
for three years, after which, he claims a Fellowship, unless
forfeited in the terms of the statutes; that is to say, by marriage,
accepting of ecclesiastick preferments, &c. The present governors
at Eaton, are,

The Provost, The Reverend and Honourable Dr. Godolphin,

Dean of St. Paul's.
Vice Provost, and Senior Fellow, The Right Reverend Dr.

Wiston, Bishop of Excester.
Second Fellow, The Right Reverend Dr. Waddington, Bishop

of Chichester.
Third Fellow, The Reverend Dr. Richardson, Master of Peter

House in Cambridge.
Fourth Fellow, The Reverend Dr. Evans.
Fifth Fellow, The Reverend Dr. Carter.
Sixth Fellow, The Reverend and Honourable Mr. Hill, once one

of the Lords of the Treasury.
Seventh Fellow, The Reverend Dr. Sleech.

The present masters are,

Dr. Henry Bland, Head Master.
Mr. Francis Goode, Second Master.

N.B. The Provost has a noble house and garden, besides the
use of the college gardens, at his pleasure.

And now being come to the edge of Middlesex, which is a
county too full of cities, towns, and palaces, to be brought in
at the close of a letter, and with which I purpose to begin my
next travels; I conclude this letter, and am,

SIR,
Your most humble servant.

THE END OF THE FOURTH LETTER

LETTER V

CONTAINING A DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY OF LONDON, AS TAKING
IN THE CITY OF WESTMINSTER, BOROUGH OF SOUTHWARD
AND THE BUILDINGS CIRCUMJACENT

SIR, As I am now near the center of this work, so I am to
describe the great center of England, the city of London, and
parts adjacent. This great work is infinitely difficult in its
particulars, though not in itself; not that the city is so difficult
to be described, but to do it in the narrow compass of a letter,
which we see so fully takes up two large volumes in folio, and
which, yet, if I may venture to give an opinion of it, is done
but by halves neither.

However, be the task difficult, as it is, yet it must be done;
to be concise and short, is absolutely necessary; to be plain and
significant, as necessary; I shall observe both, as near as I can.

London, as a city only, and as its walls and liberties line it

Black-Wall in the east, to Tot-Hill Fields in the west; and
extended in an unequal breadth, from the bridge, or river, in
the south, to Islington north; and from Peterburgh House on
the bank side in Westminster, to Cavendish Square, and all
the new buildings by, and beyond, Hannover Square, by which
the city of London, for so it is still to be called, is extended to
Hide Park Corner in the Brentford Road, and almost to Mari-
bone in the Acton Road, and how much farther it may spread,
who knows? New squares, and new streets rising up every day
to such a prodigy of buildings, that nothing in the world does,
or ever did, equal it, except old Rome in Trajan's time, when
the walls were fifty miles in compass, and the number of
inhabitants six million eight hundred thousand souls.

It is the disaster of London, as to the beauty of its figure, that
it is thus stretched out in buildings, just at the pleasure of every
builder, or undertaker of buildings, and as the convenience of
the people directs, whether for trade, or otherwise; and this

314

CITY OF LONDON 315

has spread the face of it in a most straggling, confus'd manner*
out of all shape, uncompact, and unequal; neither long or broad,
round or square; whereas the city of Rome, though a monster
for its greatness, yet was, in a manner, round, with very few
irregularities in its shape.

At London, including the buildings on both sides the water,
one sees it, in some places, three miles broad, as from St. George's
in Southwark, to Shoreditch hi Middlesex; or two miles, as
from Peterburgh House to Montague House; and in some places,
not half a mile, as in Wapping; and much less, as in Redriff.

We see several villages, formerly standing, as it were, in the
country, and at a great distance, now joyn'd to the streets by
continued buildings, and more making haste to meet in the like
manner; for example, i. Deptford, This town was formerly
reckoned, at least two miles off from Redriff, and that over the
marshes too, a place unlikely ever to be inhabited; and yet now,
by the encrease of buildings in that town itself, and the many
streets erected at Redriff, and by the docks and building-
yards on the river side, which stand between both, the town
of Deptford, and the streets of Redriff, or Rotherhith (as they
write it) are effectually joyn'd, and the buildings daily increasing ;
so that Deptford is no more a separated town, but is become
a part of the great mass, and infinitely full of people also; Here
they have, within the last two or three years, built a fine new
church, and were the town of Deptford now separated, and
rated by itself, I believe it contains more people, and stands
upon more ground, than the city of Wells.

The town of Islington, on the north side of the city, is in like
manner joyn'd to the streets of London, excepting one small
field, and which is in itself so small, that there is no doubt, but
in a very few years, they will be intirely joyn'd, and the same
may be said of Mile-End, on the east end of the town.

Newington, called Newington-Butts, in Surrey, reaches out
her hand north, and is so near joining to Southwark, that it
cannot now be properly called a town by itself, but a suburb
to the burrough, and if, as they now tell is us undertaken,
St. George's Fields should be built into squares and streets,
a very little time will shew us Newington, Lambeth, and the
Burrough, all making but one Southwark.

That Westminster is in a fair way to shake hands with
Chelsea, as St. Gyles's is with Marybone; and Great Russel
Street by Montague House, with Tottenham-Court: all this is
very evident, and yet all these put together, are still to be

3 i6 DEFOE'S TOUR

called London: Whither will this monstrous city then extend?
and where must a circumvallation or communication line of
it be placed?

I have, as near as I could, caused a measure to be taken of
this mighty, I cannot say uniform, body; and for the satisfac-
tion of the curious, I have here given as accurate a description
of it, as I can do in so narrow a compass, as this of a letter, or
as I could do without drawing a plan, or map of the places.

As I am forced, in many places, to take in some unbuilt
ground, so I have, on the other hand, been obliged to leave
a great many whole streets of buildings out of my line: So that
I have really not stretched my calculations, to make it seem
bigger than it is; nor is there any occasion of it.

A LINE OF MEASUREMENT, DRAWN ABOUT ALL THE CONTINUED
BUILDINGS OF THE CITY OF LONDON, AND PARTS ADJACENT,
INCLUDING WESTMINSTER AND SOUTHWARK, ETC.

The Line begins, for the Middlesex Side of the Buildings,

Miles Fur. Rods

1. At Peterborough House, the farthest house
west upon the River Thames, and runs N.W. by
W. by the marshes to Tutthill Fields, and passing
by the Neat Houses, and Arnold's Brewhouse,

ends at Chelsea Road, measured - - i 6 16

2. Then, allowing an interval from Bucking-
ham House cross the park, about one furlong
and half to the corner of my Lord Godolphin's
garden wall, the line goes north behind the stable-
yard buildings, and behind Park-Place, and on the
park wall behind the buildings; on the west side of
St. James's Street, to the corner in Soho, or
Pickadilly, then crossing the road, and goes along

the north side of the road west to Hide Park Gate i 211

3. Then the line turns N.E. by E. and taking
in the buildings and streets, called May-Fair, and
holds on east till the new streets formed out of
Hide House Garden, cause it to turn away north,
a point west reaching to Tyburn-Road, a little to

Carried over - - - 3 o 27

CITY OF LONDON 317

Miles Fur. Rods
Brought over - - - - 3 o 27

the east of the great mother conduit; then it goes
north, and crossing the road, takes in the west
side of Cavendish Square, and the streets adjoining,
and leaving Marybone, goes away east, 'till it
reaches to Hampstead-Road, near a little village
called Tottenham Court - - - 2 5 20

4. From Tottenham Court, the line comes in
a little south, to meet the Bloomsbury buildings,
then turning east, runs behind Montague and
Southampton Houses, to the N.E. comer of
Southampton House, then crossing the path,
meets the buildings called Queen's Square, then
turning north, 'till it comes to the N.W. corner
of the square, thence it goes away east behind the
buildings on the north side of Onnond Street,

'till it comes to Lamb's Conduit - i i 13

5. Here the line turns south, and indents to
the corner of Bedford Row, and leaving some few
houses, with the cock-pit, and bowling green,
goes on the back of Gray's Inn Wall, to Gray's
Inn Lane, then turns on the outside of the build-
ings, which are on the west side of Gray's Inn
Lane, going north to the stones end, when turning
east, it passes to the new river bridge without
Liquor-pond Street, so taking in the Cold Bath
and the Bear Garden; but leaving out Sir John
Old-Castle's and the Spaw, goes on east by the
Ducking-Pond to the end of New Bridewell, and
crossing the Fairfield, comes into the Islington Road

by the Distiller's House, formerly Justice Fuller's, i a 6

6. Here to take in all the buildings which
joyn Islington to the streets, the line goes north
on the east side of the road to the Turk's Head
ale-house; then turning north west, passes to the
New River House, but leaving it to the west, passes
by Sadler's Well, from thence to Bussby's House,
and keeping on the west side of Islington, 'till it

Carried over - - - - 8 i 26

3 i8 DEFOE'S TOUR

Miles Fur Rods

Brought over - - - - 8 i 26

comes opposite to Cambray House-Lane, turns
into the road, and passes south almost to the lane
which turns east down to the lower street, but then
turns east without the houses, and goes to the
Cow-keeper's in the lower street crossing the road,
and through the Cow-keeper's Yard into Frog-
lane, then running west on the south side of the
town, just without the buildings, joyns again to
the buildings on the west side of Wood's-Close,
passing behind the Sheep-market wall - 2 4 39

7. From Wood's-Close, the line goes due east to
Mount Mill, where, leaving several buildings to the
north, it passes on, crossing all the roads to Brick-
lane, to the north side of the great new square in
Old-street, and taking in the Pest-house wall, turns
south at the north-east corner of the said wall, to
Old-street Road; then going away east till it meets
the buildings near Hoxton Square, it turns north
to the north west corner of the wall of Ask's Hos-
pital, then sloping north east, it passes by Pimlico,
the Cyder House, and the two walls to the north
end of Hoxton, when it turns east, and inclosing the
garden walls, comes into the Ware road, just at
the King's Head in the new buildings by the Land

of Promise - - - - -20 16

8. From the King's Head, the line turns south,
running to the stones end in Shoreditch, then turn-
ing east, it takes in a burying ground and some
buildings in the Hackney road, when sloping
south east by south, it goes away by the Virginia
House to a great brewhouse, and then still more
east to the back of Wheeler-street, and then east
by south, to Brick-lane, crossing which, it goes
away east towards Bethnal Green; but then turn-
ing short south, it goes towards White Chapel
Mount, but being intercepted by new streets, it
goes quite up to the south end of the Dog-Row at

Mile End - - - - - -1619

Carried over - - - - 14 5 20

CITY OF LONDON 319

Miles Fur. Rods
Brought over - - - - 14 5 20

9. From the Dog-Row, the line crosses the road,
and takes in a little hamlet of houses, called Step-
ney, tho' not properly so, and coming back west to
the streets end at White Chapel Mill, goes away
south by the Hog-houses into Church Lane, and to
Rag Fair, when turning again east, it continues in
a strait line on the north side of Ratclifi High-way,
'till it comes almost to the farther Glass-houses,
then turning north, it surrounds all Stepney and
Stepney causeway to Mile End Road, then turning
east again, and afterwards south, comes back to
the new streets on the north side of Lime-house,
and joyning the marsh, comes down to the water
side at the lower shipwright dock in Lime-house
Hole - - - - - -37 01

18 4 21

N.B. This line leaves out all the north side of Mile End
town, from the end of the Dog-Row, to the Jews Burying
Ground, which is all built; also all the north part of the Dog-
Row, and all Bethnal Green: Also all Poplar and Black-Wall,
which are, indeed, contiguous, a trifle of ground excepted, and
very populous.

For the Soutkwark Side of the Buildings, the Line is as
follows ;

Having ended the circumference of the Middlesex buildings
at Lime-house, and the street extending towards Poplar, the
hamlets of Poplar and Blackwall, tho' very near contiguous in
buildings, being excluded, I allow an interval of two miles,
from Poplar, cross the Isle of Dogs, and over the Thames, to
the lower water gate at Deptford, and tho' in measuring the
circumference of all cities, the river, where any such runs
through any part of the buildings, is always measured, yet;
that I may not be said to stretch the extent of the buildings
which I include in this account, I omit the river from Limehouse
to Deptford (where, if included, it ought to begin) and begin
my line as above.

320 DEFOE'S TOUR

Allies Fur. Rods

1. From the said upper water-gate at Deptford,
the line goes east to the corner next the Thames,
where the shipwright's yard now is, and where I
find a continued range of buildings begins by the
side of a little creek or river, which runs into the
Thames there, and reaches quite up the said river,
to the bridge in the great Kentish road, and over
the street there, taking in the south side of the
street, to the west corner of the buildings in that
street, and then measuring down on the west side
of the long street, which runs to the Thames side,
'till you come to the new street which passes from
Deptford to Rederiff, then turning to the left,
passing on the back side of the king's yard to
Mr. Evelin's house, including the new church of
Deptford, and all the new streets or buildings
made on the fields side, which are very many,

this amounts in the whole, to - - 3 i 16

2. From Mr. Evelin's garden gate, the line goes
north west, taking in all the new docks and yards,
the Red-house, and several large streets of houses,
which have been lately built, and by which the
said town of Deptford is effectually joined to the
buildings, reaching from Cuckold's Point, east-
ward, and which are carried out, as if Rederiff
stretch'd forth its arm to embrace Deptford; then
for some length, the said street of Rederifi con-
tinues narrow 'till you come to Church-street,
where several streets are also lately built south,
and others parallel with the street, till gradually,
the buildings thicken, and extend farther and
farther to the south and south by east, 'till they
cross over the east end of Horslydown to Ber-
mondsey Church, and thence east to the sign of
the World's End, over against the great fort, being
the remains of the fortifications drawn round these
parts of Southwark in the late civil wars. This extent
is, by computation, four miles; but being measured,

as the streets indented, the circuit prov'd - 5 6 12

Carried over - - - 8 7 28

CITY OF LONDON 321

Miles Fur. Rods
Brought over - - - - 8 7 28

3. From this fort, to the corner of Long Lane,
and through Long Lane to the Lock, at the end

of Kent-street, is- - - - -17 02

4. From the corner of Kent-street to the town
of Newington Butts, drawing the line behind all
the buildings as they stand, and round the said
village of Newington, to the Haberdashers Alms
Houses, and thence by the road to the windmill,

at the corner of Blackman-street, is - - 3 a 16

5. From the windmill crossing St. George's
Fields, on the back of the Mint, to the Fighting
Cocks, thence to the Restoration Gardens, and
thence on the outside of all the buildings to
Lambeth-Wells, and on to Faux-Hall Bridge,
over against the other fort of the old fortifica-
tions, being just the same length that those old
fortifications extended, tho' infinitely fuller of
buildings; this last circuit measures - 3 5 12

17 6 18

Thus the extent or circumference of the continued buildings
of the cities of London and Westminster, and borough of
Southwark, all which, in the common acceptation, is called
London, amounts to thirty six miles, two furlongs, thirty
nine rods.

N.B. The town of Greenwich, which may, indeed, be said
to be contiguous to Deptford, might be also called a part of this
measurement; but I omit it, as I have the towns of Chelsea and
Knights Bridge on the other side, tho' both may be said to
joyn the town, and in a very few years will certainly do so.

Were it possible to reduce all these buildings to a compact
situation, 'tis generally thought, that the whole body so put
together, allowing the necessary ground, which they now
employ for the several trades in tie out-parts, such as the
building yards by the river, for shipwrights, tanners yards,
dyers, whitsters, &c. I say, 'tis believed the whole would take
up twenty eight miles in circumference, very compactly built.

The guesses that are made at the number of inhabitants,

322 DEFOE'S TOUR

have been variously form'd; Sir William Petty, famous for his
political arithmetick, supposed the city, at his last calculation,
to contain a million of people, and this he judges from the
number of births and burials; and by this rule, as well by what
is well known of the increase of the said births and burials, as
of the prodigious increase of buildings, it may be very reasonable
to conclude, the present number of inhabitants within the
circumference I have mentioned, to amount to, at least, fifteen
hundred thousand, with this addition, that it is still prodigiously
increasing.

Nor is it hard to account for this increase of people, as well
as buildings in London; but the discourse seems too political to
belong to this work, which, rather, relates to the fact than the
reason of it, and is properly to describe the thing, not to shew
why it is so, for which reason I omit entring into the enquiry.

The government of this great mass of building, and of such
a vast collected body of people, though it consists of various
parts, is, perhaps, the most regular and well-ordered government,
that any city, of above half its magnitude, can boast of.

The government of the city of London in particular, and
abstractedly considered, is, by the lord mayor, twenty four
aldermen, two sheriffs, the recorder and common council; but
the jurisdiction of these is confined to that part only, which
they call the City and its Liberties, which are marked out,
except the Borough, by the walls and the bars, as they are
called, and which the particular maps of the city have exactly
lin'd out, to which I refer.

Besides this, the lord mayor and aldermen of London have
a right presidial, as above, in the borough of Southwark, as
conservators of the bridge, and the bridge itself is their particular
jurisdiction.

Also the lord mayor, &c. is conservator of the River Thames,
from Stanes Bridge in Surrey and Middlesex, to the River
Medway in Kent, and, as some insist, up the Medway to
Rochester Bridge.

The government of the out parts, is by justices of the peace,
and by the sheriffs of London, who are, likewise, sheriffs of
Middlesex; and the government of Westminster is, by a high
bailiff, constituted by the Dean and Chapter, to whom the civil
administrations is so far committed.

The remaining part of Southwark side, when the city juris-
diction is considered, is governed, also by a Bench of Justices,
and their proper substituted peace officers; excepting out of

CITY OF LONDON 323

this the privileges of the Marshalseas, or of the Marshal's Court,
the privilege of the Marshal of the King's Bench, the Mint, and
the like.

To enter here, into a particular description of the city of
London, its antiquities, monuments, &c. would be only to
make an abridgment of Stow and his continuators, and would
make a volume by itself; but while I write in manner of a letter,
and in the person of an itinerant, and give a cursory view of its
present state, and to the reader, who is supposed to be upon
the spot, or near it, and who has the benefit of all the writers,
who have already entered upon the description; it will, I believe,
be allowed to be agreeable and sufficient to touch at those
things principally, which no other authors have yet mentioned,
concerning this great and monstrous thing, called London.

N.B. By this may be plainly understood, that I mean not the
city only, for then I must discourse of it in several parts, and
under several denominations and descriptions, as,

1. Of the city and liberties of London.

2. Of the city and liberties of Westminster.

3. Of the Tower and its hamlets.

4. Of the suburbs or buildings annex'd to these, and called
Middlesex.

5. Of the borough of Southwark.

6. Of the Bishop of Winchester's reserv'd privileged part in
Southwark, called the Park and Marshalsea.

7. Of Lambeth.

8. Of Deptford, and the king's and merchants yards for
building.

9. Of the Bridge-house and its reserved limits, belonging to
the city.

10. Of the buildings on Southwark side, not belonging to
any of these.

But by London, as I shall discourse of it, I mean, all the
buildings, places, hamlets, and villages contain'd in the line of
circumvallation, if it be proper to call it so, by which I have
computed the length of its circumference as above.

We ought, with respect to this great mass of buildings, to
observe, in every proper place, what it is now, and what it was
within the circumference of a few years past; and particularly,
when other authors wrote, who have ventured upon the
description of it.

324 DEFOE'S TOUR

It is, in the first place, to be observed, as a particular and
remarkable crisis, singular to those who write in this age, and
very much to our advantage in writing, that the great and more
eminent increase of buildings, in, and about the city of London,
and the vast extent of ground taken in, and now become streets
and noble squares of houses, by which the mass, or body of the
whole, is become so infinitely great, has been generally made in
our time, not only within our memory, but even within a few
years, and the description of these additions, cannot be
improper to a description of the whole, as follows.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE NEW BUILDINGS ERECTED IN

AND ABOUT THE ClTIES OF LONDON AND WESTMINSTER

AND BOROUGH OF SOUTHWARK, SINCE THE YEAR 1666

This account of new buildings is to be understood,

1. Of houses re-built after the great fires in London and
Southwark, &c.

2. New foundations, on ground where never any buildings
were erected before.

Take, then, the city and its adjacent buildings to stand, as
described by Mr. Stow, or by any other author, who wrote
before the Fire of London, and the difference between what
it was then, and what it is now, may be observed thus:

It is true, that before the Fire of London, the streets were
narrow, and publick edifices, as well as private, were more
crowded, and built closer to one another; for soon after the
Fire, the king, by his proclamation, forbid all persons what-
soever, to go about to re-build for a certain time, viz. till the
Parliament (which was soon to sit) might regulate and direct
the manner of building, and establish rules for the adjusting
every man's property, and yet might take order for a due
inlarging of the streets, and appointing the manner of building,
as well for the beauty as the conveniency of the city, and for
safety, in case of any future accident; for though I shall not
inquire, whether the city was burnt by accident, or by treachery,
yet nothing was more certain, than that as the city stood
before, it was strangely exposed to the disaster which happen'd,
and the buildings look'd as if they had been form'd to make one
general bonefire, whenever any wicked party of incendiaries
should think fit.

The streets were not only narrow, and the houses all built

CITY OF LONDON 325

of timber, lath and plaister, or, as they were very properly
call'd paper work, and one of the finest range of buildings in
the Temple, are, to this day, called the Paper Buildings, from
that usual expression.

But the manner of the building in those days, one story
projecting out beyond another, was such, that in some narrow
streets, the houses almost touch'd one another at the top, and
it has been known, that men, in case of fire, have escaped on the
tops of the houses, by leaping from one side of a street to
another; this made it often, and almost always happen, that if
a house was on fire, the opposite house was in more danger to
be fired by it, according as the wind stood, than the houses
next adjoining on either side.

How this has been regulated, how it was before, and how much
better it now is, I leave to be judged, by comparing the old
unburnt part of the city with the new.

But tho* by the new buildings after the fire, much ground
was given up, and left unbuilt, to inlarge the streets, yet 'tis to
be observed, that the old houses stood severally upon more
ground, were much larger upon the flat, and in many places,
gardens and large yards about them, all which, in the new
buildings, are, at least, contracted, and the ground generally
built up into other houses, so that notwithstanding all the
ground given up for beautifying the streets, yet there are many
more houses built than stood before upon the same ground; so
that taking the whole city together, there are more inhabitants
in the same compass, than there was before. To explain this
more fully, I shall give some particular instances, to which
I refer, which there are living witnesses able to confirm: For
example,

1. Swithen's Alleys by the Royal Exchange, were all, before
the Fire, taken up with one single merchant's house, and in-
habited by one Mr. Swithin; whereas, upon the same ground
where the house stood, stands now about twenty-two or twenty-
four houses, which belong to his posterity to this day.

2. Copt-Hall-Court in Throckmorton-street, was, before the
Fire, also a single house, inhabited by a Dutch merchant; also
three more courts in the same streets, were single houses, two
on the same side of the way, and one on the other.

The several alleys behind St. Christopher's Church, which
are now vulgarly, but erroneously, call'd St. Gnistopher*s-
Churchyard, were, before the Fire, one great house, or, at least,
a house and ware-houses belonging to it, in which the famous

326 DEFOE'S TOUR

Mr. Kendrick lived, whose monument now stands in St. Chris-
topher's Church, and whose dwelling, also, took up almost all
the ground, on which now a street of houses is erected, called
Prince's-street, going through into Lothbury, no such street
being known before the Fire.

Kings-Arms-Yard in Coleman-street, now built into fine large
houses, and inhabited by principal merchants, was, before the
fire, a stable-yard for horses and an inn, at the sign of the
Kings Arms.

I might fill up my account with many such instances, but
'tis enough to explain the thing, viz. That so many great houses
were converted into streets and courts, alleys and buildings,
that there are, by estimation, almost 4000 houses now standing
on the ground which the Fire left desolate, more than stood on
the same ground before.

Another increase of buildings in the city, is to be taken from
the inhabitants in the unburnt parts following the same example,
of pulling down great old buildings, which took up large tracks
of ground in some of the well inhabited places, and building on
the same ground, not only several houses, but even whole
streets of houses, which are since fully inhabited; for example;

Crosby-Square within Bishopsgate, formerly the house of
Sir James Langham merchant.

Devonshire-Square and Street, with several back streets and
passages into Petticoat-Lane one way, and Hounsditch another
way, all built on the ground where the old Earl of Devonshire
had a house and garden, and are all fully inhabited.

Bridgwater-Square, and several streets adjoyning all fully
inhabited, built on the ground where the Earl of Bridgwater
had a large house and garden in Barbican.

Billeter-Square, and several passages adjoyning, built upon
the grounds of one great house, in which, before that, one
merchant only lived.

All those palaces of the nobility, formerly making a most
beautiful range of buildings fronting the Strand, with their
gardens reaching to the Thames, where they had their particular
water-gates and stairs, one of which remains still, viz. Somerset
House, have had the same fate, such as Essex, Norfolk, Salisbury,
Worcester, Exceter, Hungerford, and York Houses; in the place
-of which, are now so many noble streets and beautiful houses,
erected, as are, in themselves, equal to a large city, and extend
from the Temple to Northumberland-House; Somerset House and
rthe Savoy, only intervening; and the latter of these may be said

CITY OF LONDON 327

to be, not a house, but a little town, being parted into innumer-
able tenements and apartments.

Many other great houses have, by the example of these, been
also built into streets, as Hatton-House in Holborn, and the old
Earl of Bedford's great garden, called New Convent Garden;
but those I omit, because built before the year 1666; but I may
add the Lord Brook's house in Holborn; the Duke of Bedford's
last remaining house and garden in the Strand, and many others.

These are prodigious enlargements to the city, even upon
that which I call inhabited ground, and where infinite numbers
of people now live, more than lived upon the same spot of
ground before.

But all this is a small matter, compared to the new founda-
tions raised within that time, in those which we justly call
the out parts; and not to enter on a particular description of
the buildings, I shall only take notice of the places where such
enlargements are made; as, first, within the memory of the
writer hereof, all those numberless ranges of building, called
Spittle Fields, reaching from Spittle-yard, at Northern Fallgate,
and from Artillery Lane in Bishopsgate-street, with all the new
streets, beginning at Hoxton, and the back of Shoreditch Church,
north, and reaching to Brick-Lane, and to the end of Hare-street,
on the way to Bethnal Green, east; then sloping away quite to
White Chapel Road, south east, containing, as some people say,
who pretend to know, by good observation, above three hundred
and twenty acres of ground, which are all now close built, and
well inhabited with an infinite number of people, I say, all these
have been built new from the ground, fince the year 1666.

The lanes were deep, dirty, and unfrequented, that part now
called Spittlefields-Market, was a field of grass with cows
feeding on it, since the year 1670. The Old Artillery Ground
(where the Parliament listed their first soldiers against the
King) took up all those long streets, leading out of Artillery
Lane to Spittle-yard-back-Gate, and so on to the end of
Wheeler-street.

Brick-Lane, which is now a long well-pav'd street, was a deep
dirty road, frequented by carts fetching bricks that way into
White-Chapel from Bride-Kilns in those fields, and had its
name on that account; in a word, it is computed, that about
two hundred thousand inhabitants dwell now in that part of
London, where, within about fifty years past, there was not a
house standing.

328 DEFOE'S TOUR

2. On the more eastern part, the same increase goes on
in proportion, namely, all Goodman's Fields, the name gives
evidence for it, and the many streets between White-Chapel
and Rosemary Lane, all built since the year 1678. Well Close,
now called Marine Square, was so remote from houses, that it
used to be a very dangerous place to go over after it was dark,
and many people have been robbed and abused in passing it;
a well standing in the middle, just where the Danish church
is now built, there the mischief was generally done; beyond this,
all the hither or west end of Ratcliff-high-way, from the corner
of Gravel-Lane, to the east end of East Smithfield, was a road
over the fields; likewise those buildings, now called Virginia-
street, and all the streets on the side of Ratcliff-high-way to
Gravel-Lane above named.

3. To come to the north side of the town, and beginning
at Shoreditch, west, and Hoxton-Square, and Charles's-Square
adjoyning, and the streets intended for a market-place, those
were all open fields, from Anniseed-clear to Hoxton Town, till
the year 1689, or thereabouts; Pitfield-street was a bank,
parting two pasture grounds, and Ask's Hospital was another
open field: Farther west, the like addition of buildings begins
at the foot way, by the Pest-house, and includes the French
hospital, Old street two squares, and several streets, extending
from Brick-Lane to Mount-Mill, and the road to Islington, and
from the road, still west, to Wood's Close, and to St. John's,
and Clerkenwell, all which streets and squares are built since
the year 1688 and 1689, and were before that, and some for
a long time after, open fields or gardens, and never built on
till after that time.

From hence we go on still west, and beginning at Gray's-Inn,
and going on to those formerly called Red Lyon Fields, and
Lamb's Conduit Fields, we see there a prodigious pile of build-
ings; it begins at Gray's-Inn Wall towards Red-Lyon Street,
from whence, in a strait line, 'tis built quite to Lamb's Conduit
Fields, north, including a great range of buildings yet unfinish'd,
reaching to Bedford Row and the Cockpit, east, and including
Red Lyon Square, Onnond Street, and the great new square at
the west end of it, and all the streets between that square and
King's Gate in Holbourn, where it goes out; this pile of buildings
is very great, the houses so magnificent and large, that abundance
of persons of quality, and some of the nobility are found among
them, particularly in Onnond Street, is the D of Powis's
house, built at the expence of France, on account of the former

CITY OF LONDON 329

house being burnt, while the Duke D'Aumont, the French
Ambassador Extraordinary lived in it; it is now a very noble
structure, tho' not large, built of free-stone, and in the most
exact manner, according to the rules of architecture, and is
said to be, next the Banquetting House, the most regular building
in this part of England.

Here is also a very convenient church, built by the contribu-
tion of the gentry inhabitants of these buildings, tho' not yet
made parochial, being called St. George's Chapel.

Farther west, in the same line, is SniTtha.nipt.on great square,
called Bloomsbury, with King-street on the east side of it, and
all the numberless streets west of the square, to the market
place, and through Great-Russel-street by Montague House,
quite into the Hampstead road, all which buildings, except the
old building of Southampton House and some of the square, has
been form'd from the open fields, since the time above-men-
tioned, and must contain several thousands of houses; here is
also a market, and a very handsome church new built.

From hence, let us view the two great parishes of St. Giles's
and St. Martin's in the Fields, the last so increased, as to be
above thirty years ago, formed into three parishes, and the other
about now to be divided also.

The increase of the buildings here, is really a kind of prodigy;
all the buildings north of Long Acre, up to the Seven Dials, all
the streets, from Leicester-Fields and St. Martin's-Lane, both
north and west, to the Hay-Market and Soho, and from the
Hay-Market to St. James's-street inclusive, and to the park
wall; then all the buildings on the north side of the street, called
Picadilly, and the road to Knight's-Bridge, and between that and
the south side of Tyburn Road, including Soho-Square, Golden-
Square, and now Hanover-Square, and that new city on the
north side of Tyburn Road, called Cavendish-Square, and all
the streets about it.

This last addition, is, by calculation, more in bulk than the
cities of Bristol, Exeter and York, if they were all put together;
all which places were, within the time mentioned, meer fields
of grass, and employ'd only to feed cattle as other fields are.

The many little additions that might be named besides these,
tho' in themselves considerable, yet being too many to give room
to here, I omit.

This is enough to give a view of the difference between
the present and the past greatness of this mighty city, called
London.

330 DEFOE'S TOUR

N.B. Three projects have been thought of, for the better
regulating the form of this mighty building, which tho' not yet
brought to perfection, may, perhaps, in time, be brought
forwards, and if it should, would greatly add to the beauty.

1. Making another bridge over the Thames.

2. Making an Act of Parliament, abrogating the names as
well as the jurisdictions of all the petty privileged places, and
joyning or uniting the whole body, Southwark and all, into
one city, and calling it by one name, London.

3. Forbidding the extent of the buildings in some particular
places, where they too much run it out of shape, and letting
the more indented parts swell out on the north and south side
a little, to balance the length, and bring the form of the whole
more near to that of a circle, as particularly stopping the running
out of the buildings at the east and west ends, as at Ratcliff and
Deptford, east, and at Tyburn and Kensington roads, west, and
encouraging the building out at Moor-fields, Bunhil-fields, the
west side of Shoreditch, and such places, and the north part of
Gray's-Inn, and other adjacent parts, where the buildings are
not equally filled out, as in other places, and the like in St.
George's Fields and behind Redriff on the other side of the water.

But these are speculations only, and must be left to the
wisdom of future ages. I return now, to some short description
of the parts; hitherto I have been upon the figure and extent of
the city and its out-parts; I come now to speak of the inside,
the buildings, the inhabitants, the commerce, and the manner of
its government, &c.

It should be observed, that the city being now re-built, has
occasioned the building of some publick edifices, even in the
place which was inhabited, which yet were not before, and the
re-building others in a new and more magnificent manner than
ever was done before.

i. That beautiful column, called the Monument, erected at
the charge of the city, to perpetuate the fatal burning of the
whole, cannot be mentioned but with some due respect to the
building itself, as well as to the city; it is two hundred and two
feet high, and in its kind, out does all the obelisks and pillars
of the ancients, at least that I have seen, having a most stupen-
dous stair-case in the middle to mount up to the balcony, which is
about thirty feet short of the top, and whence there are other
steps made even to look out at the top of the whole building;
the top is fashioned like an urn.

CITY OF LONDON 331

2. The canal or river, called Fleet-ditch, was a work of great
magnificence and expence; but not answering the design, and
being now very much neglected, and out of repair, is not much
spoken of, yet it has three fine bridges over it, and a fourth, not
so fine, yet useful as the rest, and the tide flowing up to the last;
the canal is very useful for bringing of coals and timber, and
other heavy goods; but the warehouses intended under the
streets, on either side, to lay up such goods in, are not made
use of, and the wharfs in many places are decayed and fallen in,
which make it all look ruinous.

The Royal Exchange, the greatest and finest of the kind in
the world, is the next publick work of the citizens, the beauty
of which answers for itself, and needs no description here; 'tis
observable, that tho' this Exchange cost the citizens an immense
sum of money re-building, some authors say, eighty thousand
pounds, being finished and embellished in so exquisite a manner,
yet it was so appropriated to the grand affair of business, that
the rent or income of it for many years, fully answered the
interest of the money laid out in building it: Whether it does
so still or not, I will not say, the trade for millenary goods,
fine laces, &c. which was so great above stairs for many years,
being since scattered and removed, and the shops, many of
them, left empty; but those shops, of which there were eight
double rows above, and the shops and offices round it below,
with the vaults under the whole, did at first, yield a very
great sum.

Among other publick edifices, that of the hospital of Beth-
lehem, or Bedlam, should not be forgot, which is at the very
time of writing this, appointed to be inlarged with two new
wings, and will then be the most magnificent thing of its kind
in the world.

Likewise the Custom-House, an accidental fire having de-
molished part of it, and given the commissioners opportunity
to take in more ground, will, when it is finished, out-shine all
the custom-houses in Europe.

The churches in London are rather convenient than fine, not
adorned with pomp and pageantry as in Popish countries; but,
like the true Protestant plainness, they have made very little of
ornament either within them or without, nor, excepting a few,
are they famous for handsome steeples, a great many of them
are very mean, and some that seem adorned, are rather deformed
than beautified by the heads that contrived, or by the hands
that built them.

332 DEFOE'S TOUR

Some, however, hold up their heads with grandeur and
magnificence, and are really ornaments to the whole, I mean
by these, such as Bow, St. Brides, the new church in the Strand,
Rood-Lane Church, or St. Margaret Fattens, St. Antholins,
St. Clement Danes, and some others, and some of the fifty
churches, now adding by the county and charity of the govern-
ment, are like to be very well adorned.

Three or four Gothick towers have been rebuilt at the proper
expences of the fund appointed, and are not the worst in all
the city, namely St. Michael at Cornhill, St Dunstan in the East,
St. Christophers, St. Mary Aldermary, and at St. Sepulchre's.

But the beauty of all the churches in the city, and of all the
Protestant churches in the world, is the cathedral of St. Paul's;
a building exceeding beautiful and magnificent; tho' some
authors are pleased to expose their ignorance, by pretending to
find fault with it: 'Tis easy to find fault with the works even
of God Himself, when we view them in the gross, without regard
to the particular beauties of every part separately considered,
and without searching into the reason and nature of the par-
ticulars; but when these are maturely inquired into, viewed with
a just reverence, and considered with judgment, then we fly
out in due admirations of the wisdom of the Author from the
excellency of His works.

The vast extent of the dome, that mighty arch, on which
so great a weight is supported (meaning the upper towers or
lanthorn of stone work seventy feet high) may well account
for the strength of the pillars and hutments below; yet those
common observers of the superficial parts of the building,
complain, that the columns are too gross, that the work looks
heavy, and the lower figures near the eye are too large, as if
the Dprick and the Attick were not each of them as beautiful
in their place as the Corinthian.

The wise architect, like a compleat master of his business,
had the satisfaction, in his lifetime, of hearing those ignorant
reprovers of his work confuted, by the approbation of the best
masters in Europe; and the church of St. Peter's in Rome,
which is owned to be the most finished piece in the world, only
exceeds St. Paul's in the magnificence of its inside work; the
painting, the altars, the oratories, and the variety of its imagery;
things, which, in a Protestant church, however ornamental, are
tiot allowed of.

If all the square columns, the great pilasters, and the flat
pannel work, as well within as without, which they now alledge

CITY OF LONDON 333

are too heavy and look too gross, were filled with pictures,
adorned with carved work and gilding, and crowded with
adorable images of the saints and angels, the kneeling crowd
would not complain of the grossness of the work; but 'tis the
Protestant plainness, that divesting those columns, &c. of their
ornaments, makes the work, which in itself is not so large and
gross as that of St. Peter's, be called gross and heavy; whereas
neither by the rules of order, or by the necessity of the building,
to be proportioned and sufficient to the height and weight of the
work, could they have been less, or any otherwise than they are.

Nay, as it was, those gentlemen who in Parliament opposed
Sir Christopher Wren's request, of having the dome covered
with copper, and who moved to have had the lanthorn on the
top made shorter, and built of wood; I say, those gentlemen
pretending skill in the art, and offering to reproach the judgment
of the architect, alledged, That the copper and the stone lanthorn
would be too heavy, and that the pillars below would not
support it.

To which Sir Christopher answered, That he had sustained
the building with such sufficient columns, and the buttment
was every where so good, that he would answer for it with his
head, that it should bear the copper covering and the stone
lanthorn, and seven thousand ton weight laid upon it more
than was proposed, and that nothing below should give way,
no not one half quarter of an inch; but that, on the contrary,
it should be all the firmer and stronger for the weight that
should be laid on it; adding, That it was with this view that the
work was brought up from its foundation, in such manner, as
made common observers rather think the first range of the
buildings too gross for its upper part; and that, if they pleased,
he would undertake to raise a spire of stone upon the whole, a
hundred foot higher than the cross now stands.

When all these things are considered complexly, no man that
has the least judgment in building, that knows any thing of
the rules of proportion, and will judge impartially, can find any
fault in this church; on the contrary, those excellent lines of
Mr. Dryden, which were too meanly applied in allegory to the
praise of a paltry play, may be, with much more honour to the
author, and justice to this work, applied here to St. Pauls
Church.

334 DEFOE'S TOUR

Sir Christopher's design was, indeed, very unhappily baulked
in several things at the beginning, as well in the situation as in
the conclusion of this work, which, because very few may have
heard of, I shall mention in publick, from the mouth of its
author.

i. In the situation: He would have had the situation of the
church removed a little to the north, that it should have stood
just on the spot of ground which is taken up by the street
called Pater-noster-Row, and the buildings on either side; so
that the north side of the church should have stood open to the
street now called Newgate-street, and the south side, to the
ground on which the church now stands.

By this situation, the east end of the church, which is very
beautiful, would have looked directly down the main street of
the city, Cheapside; and for the west end, Ludgate having been
removed a little north, the main street called Ludgate-street and
Ludgate-Hill, would only have sloped a little W.S.W. as they
do now irregularly two ways, one within, and the other without
the gate, and all the street beyond Fleet-Bridge would have
received no alteration at all.

By this situation, the common thorough-fare of the city
would have been removed at a little farther distance from the
work, and we should not then have been obliged to walk just
under the very wall as we do now, which makes the work
appear quite out of all perspective, and is the chief reason of the
objections I speak of; whereas, had it been viewed at a little
distance, the building would have been seen infinitely to more
advantage.

Had Sir Christopher been allowed this situation, he would
then, also, have had more room for the ornament of the west
end, which, tho' it is a most beautiful work, as it now appears,
would have been much more so then, and he would have added
a circular piazza to it, after the model of that at Rome, but
much more magnificent, and an obelisk of marble in the center
of the circle, exceeding any thing that the world can now shew
of its kind, I mean of modern work.

But the circumstance of things hindered this noble design,
and the city being almost rebuilt before he obtained an order
and provision for laying the foundation; he was prescribed to
the narrow spot where we see it now stands, in which the
building, however magnificent in itself, stands with infinite
disadvantage as to the prospect of it; the inconveniencies of
which was so apparent when the church was finished, that leave

CITY OF LONDON 335

was at length, tho' not without difficulty, obtained, to pull down
one whole row of houses on the north side of the body of the
church, to make way for the ballister that surrounds the cimetry
or church-yard, and, indeed, to admit the light into the church,
as well as to preserve it from the danger of fire.

Another baulk which, as I said, Sir Christopher met with,
was in the conclusion of the work, namely, the covering of the
dome, which Sir Christopher would have had been of copper
double gilded with gold; but he was over-ruled by Party, and
the city thereby, deprived of the most glorious sight that the
world ever saw, since the temple of Solomon.

Yet with all these disadvantages, the church is a most regular
building, beautiful, magnificent, and beyond all the modern
works of its kind in Europe, St. Peter's at Rome, as above, only
excepted.

It is true, St. Peter's, besides its beauty in ornament and
imagery, is beyond St. Paul's in its dimensions, is every way
larger; but it is the only church in the world that is so; and it
was a merry hyperbole of Sir Christopher Wren's, who, when
some gentlemen in discourse compared the two churches, and
in compliment to him, pretended to prefer St. Paul's, and
when they came to speak of the dimensions, suggested, that
St. Paul's was the biggest: I tell you, says Sir Christopher, you
might set it in St. Peter's, and look for it a good while, before you
could find it.

Having thus spoken of the city and adjacent buildings of
London, and of the particulars which I find chiefly omitted by
other writers, I have not room here to enter into all the articles
needful to a full description: However, I shall touch a little at
the things most deserving a stranger's observation.

Supposing now, the whole body of this vast building to be
considered as one city, London, and not concerning myself or
the reader with the distinction of its several jurisdictions; we
shall then observe it only as divided into three, viz. the city,
the Court, and the out-parts.

The city is the center of its commerce and wealth.

The Court of its gallantry and splendor.

The out-parts of its numbers and mechanicks; and in all
these, no city in the world can equal it.

Between the Court and city, there is a constant communica-
tion of business to that degree, that nothing in the world can
come up to it.

As the city is the center of business; there is the Custom-

33 6 DEFOE'S TOUR

house, an article, which, as it brings in an immense revenue to
the publick, so it cannot be removed from its place, all the vast
import and export of goods being, of necessity, made there;
nor can the merchants be removed, the river not admitting the
ships to come any farther.

Here, also, is the Excise Office, the Navy Office, the Bank,
and almost all the offices where those vast funds are fixed, in
which so great a part of the nation are concerned, and on the
security of which so many millions are advanced.

Here are the South Sea Company, the East India Company,
the Bank, the African Company, &c. whose stocks support that
prodigious paper commerce, called Stock- Jobbing; a trade,
which once bewitched the nation almost to its ruin, and which,
tho' reduced very much, and recovered from that terrible
infatuation which once overspread the whole body of the
people, yet is still a negotiation, which is so vast in its extent,
that almost all the men of substance in England are more or
less concerned in it, and the property of which is so very often
alienated, that even the tax upon the transfers of stock, tho* but
five shillings for each transfer, brings many thousand pounds
a year to the government; and some have said, that there is
not less than a hundred millions of stock transferred forward
or backward from one hand to another every year, and this is
one thing which makes such a constant daily intercourse between
the Court part of the town, and the city; and this is given as
one of the principal causes of the prodigious conflux of the
nobility and gentry from all parts of England to London, more
than ever was known in former years, viz. That many thousands
of families are so deeply concerned in those stocks, and find it
so absolutely necessary to be at hand to take the advantage
of buying and selling, as the sudden rise or fall of the price
directs, and the loss they often sustain by their ignorance of
things when absent, and the knavery of brokers and others,
whom, in their absence, they are bound to trust, that they find
themselves obliged to come up and live constantly here, or at
least, most part of the year.

This is the reason why, notwithstanding the encrease of new
buildings, and the addition of new cities, as they may be called,
every year to the old, yet a house is no sooner built, but 'tis
tenanted and inhabited, and every part is crouded with people,
and that not only in the town, but in all the towns and villages
round, as shall be taken notice of in its place.

But let the citizens and inhabitants of London know, and it

CITY OF LONDON 337

may be worth the reflection of some of the landlords, and
builders especially, that if peace continues, and the publick
affairs continue in honest and upright management, there is
a time coming, at least the nation hopes for it, when the publick
debts being reduced and paid off, the funds or taxes on which
they are establish'd, may cease, and so fifty or sixty millions of
the stocks, which are now the solid bottom of the South-Sea
Company, East-India Company, Bank, &c. will cease, and be no
more; by which the reason of this conflux of people being
removed, they will of course, and by the nature of the thing,
return again to their country seats, to avoid the expensive living
at London, as they did come up hither to share the extravagant
gain of their former business here.

What will be the condition of this overgrown city in such
a case, I must leave to time; but all those who know the tem-
porary constitution of our ftmds, know this, i. That even, if
they are to spin out their own length, all those funds which
were given for thirty-two years, have already run out one
third, and some of them almost half the time, and that the rest
will soon be gone: 2. That as in two years more, the Government
which receives six per cent, and pays but five, and will then pay
but four per cent, interest, will be able every year to be paying
off and lessening the publick debt, 'till, in time, 'tis to be hoped,
all our taxes may cease, and the ordinary revenue may, as it
always used to do, again supply the ordinary expence of the
government.

Then, I say, will be a time to expect the vast concourse of
people to London, will separate again and disperse as naturally,
as they have now crouded hither: What will be the fate then
of all the fine buildings in the out parts, in such a case, let any
one judge. .

There has formerly been a great emulation between the
Court end of the town, and the city; and it was once seriously
proposed in a certain reign, how the Court should humble the
city; nor was it so impracticable a thing at that time, had the
wicked scheme been carried on: Indeed, it was carried farther
than consisted with the prudence of a good government, or of
a wise people; for the Court envy>d the city's greatness, and
the citizens were ever jealous of the Court's designs: The most
fatal steps the Court took to humble the city, and which, as
I say, did not consist with the prudence of a good government,
were, i. The shutting up the Exchequer, and, 2. The bringing
a quo warranio against their Charter; but these things can

338 DEFOE'S TOUR

but be touch'd at here; the city has outliv'd it all, and both the
attempts turn'd to the discredit of the Court party, who pushed
them on: But the city, I say, has gained the ascendant, and is
now made so necessary to the Court (as before it was thought
rather a grievance) that now we see the Court itself the daily
instrument to encourage and increase the opulence of the city,
and the city again, by its real grandeur, made not a glory only,
but an assistance and support to the Court, on the greatest and
most sudden emergencies.

Nor can a breach be now made on any terms, but the city
will have the advantage; for while the stocks, and Bank,
and trading companies remain in the city, the center of the
money, as well as of the credit and trade of the kingdom, will
be there.

Nor are these capital offices only necessarily kept in the city,
but several offices belonging to the public oeconomy of the
administration, such as the Post Office, the Navy, the Victualling,
and the Pay Offices, including the Ordnance Office, which is
kept in the Tower. In a word, the offices may, indeed, be said
to be equally divided.

The city has all those above-mentioned, and the Court has
the Admiralty, the Exchequer, and the Secretaries of State's
Offices, with those of the Pay-Masters of the Army, &c.

Besides these, the Council, the Parliament, and the Courts of
Justice, are all kept at the same part of the town; but as all
suits among the citizens are, by virtue of their privileges, to be
try'd within the liberty of the city, so the term is obliged to
be (as it were) adjourned from Westminster-Hall to Guild-Hail,
to try causes there; also criminal cases are in like manner tried
monthly at the Old Baily, where a special commission is granted
for that purpose to the judges; but the Lord Mayor always
presides, and has the chair.

The equality, however, being thus preserved, and a perfect
good understanding between the Court and city having so long
flourished, this union contributes greatly to the flourishing
circumstances of both, and the pubHck credit is greatly raised
by it; for it was never known, that the city, on any occasion,
was so assistant to the government, as it has been since this
general good agreement. No sum is so great, but the Bank has
been able to raise. Here the Exchequer bills are at all times
circulated, money advanced upon the funds as soon as laid,
and that at moderate interest, not incroaching on the govern-
ment, or extorting large interest to eat up the nation, and

CITY OF LONDON 339

disappoint^ the sovereign, and defeat his best designs, as in
King William's time was too much the practice.

By this^ great article of publick credit, all the king's business
is done with chearfulness. provisions are now bought to victual
the fleets without difficulty, and at reasonable rates. The
several yards where the ships are built and fitted out, are
currently paid: The magazines of millitary and naval stores
kept, full: In a word, by this very article of publick credit, of
which the Parliament is the foundation (and the city, are the
architectures or builders) all those great things are now done
with ease, which, in the former reigns, went on heavily, and
were brought about with the utmost difficulty.

But, to return to the city; Besides the companies and publick
offices, which are kept in the city, there are several particular
offices and places, some built or repaired on purpose, and others
hired and beautified for the particular business they carry on
respectively: As,

Here are several great offices for several societies of ensurers;
for here almost all hazards may be ensured; the four principal
are called, i. Royal Exchange Ensurance: 2. The London
Ensurers: 3, The Hand in Hand Fire Office: 4. The Sun Fire
Office.

In the two first of those, all hazards by sea are ensured, that
is to say, of ships or goods, not lives; as also houses and goods
are ensured from fire.

In the last, only houses and goods.

In all which offices, the fremio is so small, and the recovery,
in case of loss, so easy and certain, where no fraud is suspected,
that nothing can be shewn like it in the whole world; especially
that of ensuring houses from fire, which has now attained such
an universal approbation, that I am told, there are above seventy
thousand houses thus ensured in London, and the parts adjacent.

The East-India House is in Leadenhall-Street, an old, but
spacious building; very convenient, though not beautiful, and
I am told, it is under consultation to have it taken down, and
rebuilt with additional buildings for warehouses and cellars for
their goods, which at present are much wanted.

The African Company's house is in the same street, a very
handsome, well-built, and convenient house, and which fully
serves for all the offices their business requires.

The Bank is kept in Grocer's Hall, a very convenient place,
and, considering its situation, so near the Exchange, a very
spacious, commodious place.

34 o DEFOE'S TOUR

Here business is dispatch'd with such exactness, and such
expedition and so much of it too, that it is really prodigious;
no confusion, nobody is either denied or delayed payment, the
merchants who keep their cash there, are sure to have their
bills always paid, and even advances made on easy terms, if
they have occasion. No accounts in the world are more exactly
kept, no place in the world has so much business done, with
so much ease.

In the next street (the Old Jury) is the Excise Office, in a very
large house, formerly the dwelling of Sir John Fredrick, and
afterwards, of Sir Joseph Hern, very considerable merchants.
In this one office is managed an immense weight of business,
and they have in pay, as I am told, near four thousand officers:
The whole kingdom is divided by them into proper districts,
and to every district, a collector, a supervisor, and a certain
number of gaugers, called, by the vulgar title excise men.

Nothing can be more regular, than the methods of this office,
by which an account of the whole excise is transmitted from
the remotest parts of the kingdom, once every six weeks, which
is called a sitting, and the money received, or prosecutions
commenced for it, in the next sitting.

Under the management of this office, are now brought, not
only the excise upon beer, ale, and other liquors, as formerly,
but also the duties on malt and candles, hops, soap, and leather,
all which are managed in several and distinct classes, and the
accounts kept in distinct books; but, in many places, are
collected by the same officers, which makes the charge of the
collection much easier to the government: Nor is the like duty
collected in any part of the world, with so little charge, or so
few officers.

The South-Sea House is situate in a large spot of ground,
between Broad-Street and Threadneedle-Street, two large houses
having been taken in, to form the whole office; but, as they
were, notwithstanding, straighten* d for room, and were obliged
to summon their general courts in another place, viz. at Merchant-
Taylors Hall; so they have now resolved to erect a new and
compleat building for the whole business, which is to be exceed-
ing fine and large, and to this end, the company has purchased
several adjacent buildings, so that the ground is inlarged
towards Threadneedle-Street; but, it seems, they could not be
accommodated to their minds on the side next Broad-Street,
so we are told, they will not open a way that way, as before.
As the company are enlarging their trade to America, and

CITY OF LONDON 341

have also engaged in a new trade, namely, that of the Greenland
whale fishing, they are like to have an occasion to enlarge their
offices. This building, they assure us, will cost the company from
ten to twenty thousand pounds, that is to say, a very great sum.

The Post Office, a branch of the revenue formerly not much
valued, but now, by the additional penny upon the letters, and
by the visible increase of business in the nation, is grown very
considerable. This office maintains now, pacquet boats to Spain
and Portugal, which never was done before: So the merchants
letters for Cadiz or Lisbonne, which were before two and twenty
days in going over France and Spain to Lisbonne, oftentimes
arrive there now, in nine or ten days from Falmouth.

Likewise, they have a pacquet from Marseilles to Port
Mahone, in the Mediterranean, for the constant communication
of letters with his majesty's garrison and people in the island
of Minorca.

They have also a pacquet from England to the West-Indies;
but I am not of opinion, that they will keep it up for much
time longer, if it be not already let fall.

This office is kept in Lombard-Street, in a large house,
formerly Sir Robert Viner's, once a rich goldsmith; but ruined
at the shutting up of the Exchequer, as above.

The penny post, a modern contrivance of a private person,
one Mr. William Dockraw, is now made a branch of the general
revenue by the Post Office; and though, for a time, it was
subject to miscarriages and mistakes, yet now it is come also
into so exquisite a management, that nothing can be more
exact, and 'tis with the utmost safety and dispatch, that letters
are delivered at the remotest corners of the town, almost as
soon as they could be sent by a messenger, and that from four,
five, six, to eight times a day, according as the distance of the
place makes it practicable; and you may send a letter from
RatcHff or Limehouse in the East, to the farthest part of West-
minster for a penny, and that several times in the same day.

Nor are you tied up to a single piece of paper, as in the
General Post-Office, but any packet under a pound weight,
goes at the same price.

I mention this the more particularly, because it is so manifest
a testimony to the greatness of tius city, and ^ to the great
extent of business and commerce in it, that this penny con-
veyance should raise so many thousand pounds^in a year, and
employ so many poor people in the diligence of it, as this office
employs.

342 DEFOE'S TOUR

We see nothing of this at Paris, at Amsterdam, at Hamburgh,
or any other city, that ever I have seen, or heard of.

The Custom House I have just mentioned before, but must
take up a few lines to mention it again. The stateliness of the
building, shewed the greatness of the business that is transacted
there: The Long Room is like an Exchange every morning, and
the croud of people who appear there, and the business they do,
is not to be explained by words, nothing of that kind in Europe
is like it.

Yet it has been found, that the business of export and import
in this port of London, is so prodigiously increased, and the
several new offices, which they are bound to erect for the
managing the additional parts of the customs, are such, that the
old building, though very spacious, is too little, and as the late
Fire burnt or demolish'd some part of the west end of the
Custom House, they have had the opportunity in rebuilding, to
enlarge it very much, buying in the ground of some of the
demolished houses, to add to the Custom House, which will be
now a most glorious building.

The keys, or wharfs, next the river, fronting not the Custom
House only, but the whole space from the Tower stairs, or dock,
to the bridge, ought to be taken notice of as a publick building;
nor are they less an ornament to the city, as they are a testimony
of the vast trade carried on in it, than the Royal Exchange itself.

The revenue, or income, brought in by these wharfs, inclusive
of the warehouses belonging to them, and the lighters they
employ, is said to amount to a prodigious sum; and, as I am
told, seldom so little as forty thousand pounds per annum: And
abundance of porters, watchmen, wharfingers, and other officers,
are maintained here by the business of the wharfs; in which,
one thing is very remarkable, That here are porters, and poor
working men, who, though themselves not worth, perhaps,
twenty pounds in the world, are trusted with great quantities
of valuable goods, sometimes to the value of several thousand
pounds, and yet 'tis very rarely to be heard, that any loss or
embezzlement is made. The number of these keys extending,
as above, from the bridge to the Tower Dock, is seventeen.

From these publick places, I come next to the markets, which,
in such a mass of building, and such a collection of people, and
where such business is done, must be great, and very many.
To take a view of them in particular;

First, Smithfield Market for living cattle, which is, without
question, the greatest in the world; no description can be given

CITY OF LONDON 343

of it, no calculation of the numbers of creatures sold there, can
be made. This market is every Monday and Friday.

There is, indeed, a liberty taken by the butchers, to go up
to Islington, and to Whitechapel, and buy of the country drovers,
who bring cattle to town; but this is called forestalling the
market, and is not allowed by law.

There is also a great market, or rather fair for horses, in Smith-
field every Friday in the afternoon, where very great numbers
of horses, and those of the highest price, are to be sold weekly.

The flesh markets are as follow.

Leaden-Hall, Honey-Lane, Newgate, Clare, Shadwell, South-
wark, Westminster, Spittle Fields, Hoxton (forsaken) Brook,
Bloomsbury, Newport, St. James's, Hungerford.

N.B. At all these markets, there is a part set by for a fish
market, and a part for an herb market; so that when I say
afterwards, there are fish markets, and herb markets, I am
to be understood, such as are wholly for fish, or for herbs and
fruit. For example,

_. , , x (Billingsgate, Fishstreet Hill, and Old

Fish markets | Fishstreet.

Herb markets Covent Garden, and Stocks Market.

N.B. Cherry \

market, and ap- >At the Three Cranes,

pie market - - )

Corn markets Bear Key, and Queen Hith.

, _ . (Queen Hith, Hungerford, Ditch-Side, and

Meal markets | Whitecross-Street.

(Whitechapel, Smithfield, Southwark, the
Hay markets \ Hay-Market-Street, Westminster, and

I Bloomsbury.
Leather market Leaden Hall.
Hides and skins Leaden Hall, and Wood's Close.
Coal markets Billingsgate, Room Land.
Bay market Leaden Hall.

Broadcloth l Blackwe ll Hall,
market - j

N.B. The last three are, without doubt, the greatest in the
world of those kinds.

Bubble market Exchange Alley,

344 DEFOE'S TOUR

These markets are so considerable in themselves, that they
will merit a longer and more particular description, than I have
room for in this place. I shall, however, briefly mention them
again in their order.

Of the fourteen flesh markets, or markets for provisions, seven
of them are of antient standing, time out of mind: But the other
seven are erected since the enlargement of buildings mentioned
above. The old ones are, Leaden-Hall, Honey-Lane, Newgate
Market, Southwark, Clare, St. James's, and Westminster; and
these are so considerable, such numbers of buyers, and such
an infinite quantity of provisions of all sorts, flesh, fish, and
fowl, that, especially the first, no city in the world can equal
them. 'Tis of the first of these markets, that a certain Spanish
ambassador said, There was as much meat sold in it in one
month, as would suffice all Spain for a year.

This great market, called, Leaden-Hall, though standing in
the middle of the city, contains three large squares, every
square having several outlets into divers streets, and all into one
another. The first, and chief, is called, the Beef Market, which
has two large gates, one into Leaden Hall Street, one into Grace-
church Street, and two smaller, viz. One by a long pav'd passage
leading into Limestreet, and one under a gateway from the
second square. In this square, every Wednesday is kept a
market for raw hides, tann'd leather, and shoemakers tools;
and in the warehouses, up stairs on the east and south sides of
the square, is the great market for Colechester bayes.

The second square is divided into two oblongs, in the first
is the fish market, and in the other, a market for country
higlers, who bring small things, such as pork, butter, eggs,
pigs, country dress'd, with some fouls, and such like country
fare.

The north part of the fish market, the place being too large
for the fishmongers use, are the stalls of the town butchers
for mutton and veal, the best and largest of which, that England
can produce, is to be bought there, and the east part is a flesh
market for country butchers.

The third, and last square, which is also very large, is divided
into three parts: Round the circumference, is the butter market,
with all sorts of higglary goods, as before: The south part is
the poultry market, and the bacon market, and the center is
an herb market.

All the other markets follow the same method in proportion
to the room they have for it; and there is an herb market in

CITY OF LONDON 345

every one; but the chief markets in the whole city for herbs
and garden-stuff, are the Stocks and Covent Garden.

There are but two corn markets in the whole city and out
parts; but they are monsters for magnitude, and not to be
matched in the world. These are Bear Key, and Queen Hith:
To the first comes all the vast quantity of corn that is brought
into the city by sea, and here corn may be said, not to be sold
by cart loads, or horse loads, but by ship loads, and, except
the corn chambers and magazines in Holland, when the fleets
come in from Dantzick and England, the whole world cannot
equal the quantity bought and sold here.

This is the place whither all the corn is brought, which, as
I have observed, is provided in all the counties of England, near
the sea coast, and shipp'd for London, and no quantity can be
wanted, either for home consumption, or for foreign exportation,
but the corn factors, who are the managers of this market, are
ready to supply it.

The other, which I call a corn market too, is at Queen Hith;
but this market is chiefly, if not wholly, for malt; as to the
whole corn, as the quantity of malt brought to this market is
prodigious great, so I must observe too, that this place is the
receiver of all the malt, the barley of which, takes up the ground
of so many hundred thousand acres of land in the counties of
Surrey, Bucks, Berks, Oxford, Southampton, and Wilts, and is
called west country malt.

It is true, there is a very great quantity of malt, and of other
corn too, brought to some other places on the river, and sold
there, viz. To Milf ord Lane, above the bridge, and the Hermitage,
below the bridge ; but this is but, in general, a branch of the trade
of the other places.

It must not be omitted, that Queen Hith is also a very great
market for meal, as well as malt, and, perhaps, the greatest
in England.

The vessels which bring this malt and meal to Queen Hith,
are worth the observation of any stranger that understands such
things. They are remarkable for the length of the vessel, and
the burthen they carry, and yet the little water they draw; in
a word, some of those barges carry above a thousand quarter
of malt at a time, and yet do not draw two foot of water.
N.B. A thousand quarter of malt must be granted to be, at
least, a hundred tun burthen. Note also, Some of these large
barges come as far as from Abbington, which is above one
hundred and fifty miles from London, if we measure by the river.

346 DEFOE'S TOUR

The next market, which is more than ordinary remarkable,
is the coal market at Billingsgate. This is kept every morning
on the broad place just at the head of Billingsgate Dock, and the
place is called Room Land; from what old forgotten original
it has that name, history is silent. I need not, except for the
sake of strangers, take notice, that the city of London, and
parts adjacent, as also all the south of England, is supplied with
coals, called therefore sea-coal, from Newcastle upon Tyne, and
from the coast of Durham, and Northumberland. This trade is
so considerable, that it is esteemed the great nursery of our best
seamen, and of which I shall have occasion to say more in my
account of the northern parts of England. The quantity of
coals, which it is supposed are, communtbus annis, burnt and
consumed in and about this city, is supposed to be about five
hundred thousand chalder, every chalder containing thirty-six
bushels, and generally weighing about thirty hundred weight.

All these coals are bought and sold on this little spot of
Room Land, and, though sometimes, especially in case of a
war, or of contrary winds, a fleet of five hundred to seven
hundred sail of ships, comes up the river at a time, yet they
never want a market: The brokers, or buyers of these coals,
are called crimps, for what reason, or original, is likewise a
mystery peculiar to this trade; for these people are noted for
giving such dark names to the several parts of their trade; so
the vessels they load their ships with at New Castle, are called
keels, and the ships that bring them, are called cats, and hags,
or hag boats, and fly boats, and the like. But of that hereafter.

The increase of this consumption of coals, is another evidence
of the great increase of the city of London; for, within a few
years past, the import of coals was not, in the river of Thames,
so great by very near half.

It must be observed, that as the city of London occasions the
consumption of so great a quantity of corn and coals, so the
measurement of them is under the inspection of the lord mayor
and court of aldermen, and for the direction of which, there
are allowed a certain number of corn meeters, and coal meeters,
whose places are for life, and bring them in a very considerable
income. These places are in the gift of the lord mayor for the
time being, and are generally sold for three or four thousand
pounds a piece, when they fall.

They have abundance of poor men employ* d under them,
who are called, also, meeters, and are, or ought to be, freemen
of the city.

CITY OF LONDON 347

This is, indeed, a rent-charge upon the buyer, and is a kind
of gabel, as well upon the coals as the corn; but the buyer is
abundantly recompensed, by being ascertained in his measure
without any fraud; so that having bought his coals or corn, he
is perfectly unconcerned about the measure, for the sworn
meeters are so placed between the buyer and seller, that no
injury can be offered, nor have I heard that any complaint of
injustice is ever made against the meeters, who are generally
men of good character, are sworn to do right, and cannot
easily do wrong without being detected; so many eyes being
about them, and so many several persons concerned in the work,
who have no dependance one upon another.

There is one great work yet behind, which, however, seems
necessary to a full description of the city of London, and that is
the shipping and the Pool; but in what manner can any writer
go about it, to bring it into any reasonable compass? The thing
is a kind of infinite, and the parts to be separated from one
another in such a description, are so many, that it is hard to
know where to begin.

The whole river, in a word, from London-Bridge to Black
Wall, is one great arsenal, nothing in the world can be like it:
The great building-yards at Schedam near Amsterdam, are said
to out-do them in the number of ships which are built there,
and they tell us, that there are more ships generally seen at
Amsterdam, than in the Thames.

As to the building part, I will not say, but that there may be
more vessels built at Schedam, and the parts adjacent, than in
the River Thames; but then it must be said;

1. That the English build for themselves only, the Dutch for
all the world.

2. That almost all the ships the Dutch have, are buflt there,
whereas, not one fifth part of our shipping is built in the Thames;
but abundance of ships are built at all the sea-ports in England,
such as at New-Castle, Sunderland, Stockton, Whitby, Hull,
Gainsborough, Grimsby, Lynn, Yarmouth, Alborough, Wal-
derswick, Ipswich and Harwich, upon the east coast; and at
Shoram, Arundel, Brighthelmston, Portsmouth, Southampton,
Pool, Weymouth, Dartmouth, Plymouth, besides other places,
on the south coast.

3 That we see more vessels in less room at Amsterdam; but
the 'setting aside their hoys, bilanders and schoots, which are
in great numbers always there, being vessels particular to
their inland and coasting navigation; you do not see more

348 DEFOE'S TOUR

ships, nor near so many ships of force, at Amsterdam as at
London.

4. That you see more ships there in less room, but, perhaps,
not so many ships in the whole.

That part of the river of Thames which is properly the
harbour, and where the ships usually deliver or unload their
cargoes, is called the Pool, and begins at the turning of the river
out of Lime-house Reach, and extends to the Custom-house-
Keys: In this compass I have had the curiosity to count the
ships as well as I could, en passant, and have found above two
thousand sail of all sorts, not reckoning barges, lighters or
pleasure-boats, and yatchs; but of vessels that really go to sea.

It is true, the river or Pool, seem'd, at that time, to be pretty
full of ships; it is true also, that I included the ships which lay
in Deptford and Black-Wall reaches, and in the wet docks,
whereof, there are no less than three; but 'tis as true, that we
did not include the men of war at the king's yard and in the
wet dock there at Deptford, which were not a very few.

In the river, as I have observed, there are from Battle-Bridge
on the Southwark side, and the Hermitage-Bridge on the
city-side, reckoning to Black-Wall, inclusive,

Three wet docks for laying up ]

Twenty two dry docks for I merchants shi

repairing j *

Thirty three yards for building )

This is inclusive of the builders of lighters, hoys, &c. but
exclusive of all boat-builders, wherry-builders, and above-bridge
barge-builders.

To enter into any description of the great magazines of all
manner of naval stores, for the furnishing those builders, would
be endless, and I shall not attempt it; 'tis sufficient to add, That
England, as I have said elsewhere, is an inexhaustible store-house
of timber, and all the oak timber, and generally the plank also,
used in the building these ships, is found in England only, nay,
and which is more, it is not fetched from the remoter parts of
England, but these southern counties near us are the places
where 'tis generally found; as particularly the counties of Berks
and Bucks, Surrey, Kent, Sussex, Essex and Suffolk, and very
little is brought farther, nor can all the ship-building the whole
kingdom are able to build, ever exhaust those counties, tho'
they were to build much more than they do.

But I must land, lest this part of the account seems to smell

CITY OF LONDON 349

of the tarr, and I should tire the gentlemen with leading them
out of their knowledge.

I should mention, for the information of strangers, &c. that
the buildings of this great city are chiefly of brick, as many
ways found to be the safest, the cheapest, and the most com-
modious of all other materials; by safe, I mean from fire, and as
by Act of Parliament, every builder is bound to have a partition
wall of brick also, one brick and half thick between every house,
it is found to be, indeed, very helpful in case of fire.

And as I am speaking of fire and burning of houses, it cannot
be omitted, That no where in the world is so good care taken
to quench fires as in London; I will not say the like care is
taken to prevent them; for I must say, That I think the servants,
nay, and masters too in London, are the most careless people
in the world about fire, and this, no doubt, is the reason why
there are frequently more fires in London and in the out-parts,
than there are in all the cities of Europe put them together;
nor are they the more careful, as I can learn, either from observa-
tion or report, I say, they are not made more cautious, by the
innumerable fires which continually happen among them.

And this leads me back to what I just now said. That no city
in the world is so well furnished for the extinguishing fires when
they happen.

1. By the great convenience of water which being every
where laid in the streets in large timber pipes, as well from the
Thames as the New-River, those pipes are furnished with a
fire plug, which the parish officers have the key of, and when
opened, let out not a pipe, but a river of water into the streets,
so that making but a darn in the kennel, the whole street is
immediately under water to supply the engines.

2. By the great number of admirable engines, of which,
almost, every parish has one, and some halls also, and some
private citizens have them of their own, so that no sooner does
a fire break out, but the house is surrounded with engines, and
a flood of water poured upon it, 'till the fire is, as it were, not
extinguished only, but drowned.

3. The several ensurance ofiices, of which I have spoken
above, have each of them a certain sett of men, who they keep
in constant pay, and who they furnish with tools proper for the
work, and to whom they give jack-caps of leather, able to
keep them from hurt, if brick or timber, or any thing not of
too great a bulk, should fall upon them; these men make it
their business to be ready at call, all hours, and night or day, to

350 DEFOE'S TOUR

assist in case of fire; and it must be acknowledged, they are
very dextrous, bold, diligent, and successful. These they call
fire-men, but with an odd kind of contradiction in the title, for
they are really most of them water-men.

Having mentioned, that the city is so well furnished with
water, it cannot be omitted, that there are two great engines
for the raising the Thames water, one at the bridge, and the
other near Broken Wharf; these raise so great a quantity of
water, that, as they tell us, they are able to supply the whole
city in its utmost extent, and to supply every house also, with
a running pipe of water up to the uppermost story.

However, the New-River, which is brought by an aqueduct
or artificial stream from Ware, continues to supply the greater
part of the city with water, only with this addition by the way,
that they have been obliged to dig a new head or basin at
Islington on a higher ground than that which the natural stream
of the river supplies, and this higher basin they ful from the
lower, by a great engine worked formerly with six sails, now by
many horses constantly working; so from that new elevation
of the water, they supply the higher part of the town with
the same advantage, and more ease than the Thames engines
doit.

There was a very likely proposal set on foot by some gentle-
men, whose genius seem'd equal to the work, for drawing
another river, rather larger than that now miming, and bringing
it to a head on some rising grounds beyond Mary le Bonne,

This water was proposed to be brought from the little Coin
or Cole near St. ALbans, and the river, called Two Waters, near
Rickmansworth, and as I have seen the course of the water,
and the several supplies it was to have, and how the water-level
was drawn for containing the current, I must acknowledge it
was a very practical undertaking, and merited encouragement;
but it was opposed in Parliament, and dropt for the present:
This design was particularly calculated for supplying those
prodigious additions of buildings, which I have already describ'd
at the west end of tibe town.

However, tho* this be laid aside, as also several water-houses
in other parts, particularly one at Wapping, one near Ba,ttle-
Bridge in Southwark, and the famous one at York-Buildings,
yet it cannot be denied, that the city^ of London is the best
supplied with water of any great city in the world, and upon
as easy terms to its inhabitants.

There were formerly several beautiful conduits of running-

CITY OF LONDON 351

water in London, which water was very sweet and good, and
was brought at an infinite expence, from several distant springs,
in large leaden pipes to those conduits, and this was so lately,
that several of those conduits were re-built since the Fire, as
one on Snow-Hill and one at Stocks-Market, which serves as a
pedestal for the great equestrian statue of King Charles II.
erected there at the charge of Sir Robert Viner, then Lord
Mayor, and who was then an eminent banker in Lombard-street;
but his loyalty could not preserve him from being ruined by the
common calamity, when the king shut up the Exchequer.

They tell us a merry story of this statue, how true it may be,
let those testify who saw it, if any such witnesses remain, viz.
That a certain famous Court lady, I do not say it was the

D ss of Portsmouth, being brought to bed of a son late in

the night, the next morning this glorious equestrian statue had

a pillion handsomely placed on it behind the body of the k ,

with a paper pinned to the trapping of the pillion, with words
at length, Gone for a midwife.

It is scarce worth while to give an account of the statues in
this city, they are neither many, or are those which are, very
valuable.

The statue of King Charles II. in marble, standing in the
middle of the Royal Exchange, is the best beyond comparison;
one of the same prince, and his father, standing in two large
niches on the south front of the same building, and being
bigger than the life, are coarse pieces compared to it.

The statues of the kings and queens, seventeen of which are
already put up in the inside of the Royal Exchange, are toler-
able, but all infinitely inferior to that in the middle.

There is a statue of Sir Thomas Gresham, the founder of the
Royal Exchange, which outdoes many of those kings, only that
it stands in a dark corner, and is little noticed; 'tis placed in
a nitch under the piazza, in the north west angle of the Exchange,
just regarding the Turky walk, and he has a bale of silk lying
by him.

There is another equestrian statue, and but one, as I remember,
within the city, and that is of King James the First on the north
front of one of the gates of the city called Aldersgate: This was
erected on the occasion of that king's entring the city at that
gate when he arrived here from Scotland, to take the crown after
the death of Queen Elizabeth; when that statue was finely
painted and gilded, which is not usual, nor is the gilding yet
worn off; there are some emblematick figures remaining, which

352 DEFOE'S TOUR

were then suited to the occasion of his triumphal entry, and
there was another arch form'd for the day at the bars, where the
liberties of the city end, that way which is now called Goswell-
street, but that was taken down soon after.

The gates of the city are seven, besides posterns, and the
posterns that remain are four, besides others that are demolished.

The gates are all remaining, two of them which were demo-
lished at the fire, being beautifully re-built: These are Ludgate
and Newgate; the first a prison for debt for freemen of the city
only, the other a prison for criminals, both for London and Middle-
sex, and for debtors also for Middlesex, being the county gaol.

Moregate is also re-built, and is a very beautiful gateway, the
arch being near twenty foot high, which was done to give
room for the city Train' d Bands to go through to the Artillery
Ground, where they muster, and that they might march with
their pikes advanc'd, for then they had pikemen in every
regiment, as well in the army as in the militia, which since that
is quite left off; this makes the gate look a little out of shape',
the occasion of it not being known. Cripplegate and Bishopsgate
are very old, and make but a mean figure; Aldersgate is about
one hundred and twenty years old, and yet being beautified,
as I have said, on the occasion of King James's entry, looks
very handsome.

Aldgate was very ancient and decay'd, so that As old as
Aldgate, was a city proverb for many years; but this gate was
re-built also, upon the triumphant entry of K. James I. and
looks still very well; on the east side of this gate are two statues
in stone, representing two men, from the waste upward, and in
armour, throwing down two great stones, supposing it to be
on an enemy assaulting the gate, which I mention, because
some time ago, one of these men in armour, whether tired with
holding it so long, or dreaming of enemies assaulting the gate,
our authors do not inform us; but he threw down the stone,
or rather let it fall, after having held it upwards of an hundred
years; but, as it happened, it did no harm.

Most of these gates are given by the city to the chief of the
officers of the city to live in, and the houses are very convenient
dwellings.

Temple-Bar is the only gate which is erected at the extent
of the city liberties, and this was occasioned by some needful
ceremonies at the proclaiming any King or Queen of England,
at which time the gates are shut; the Herald at Arms knocks
hard at the door, the sheriffs of the city call back, asking who

CITY OF LONDON

353

is there? Then the herald answers, "I come to proclaim/ 1 &c.
according to the name of the prince who is to succeed to the
crown, and repeating the titles of Great Britain, France and
Ireland, &c. at which the sheriffs open, and bid them welcome,
and so they go on to the Exchange, where they make the last
proclamation.

This gate is adorned with the figures of kings below, and
traytors above, the heads of several criminals executed for
treason being set up there; the statues below are of Queen
Elizabeth and King James I. King Charles I. and II. and this
is the fourth statue of King Charles II. which is to be seen in
the city of London, besides his picture nobly done at full length,
which was set up formerly in the Guild-HalL

There are hi London, and the far extended bounds, which
I now call so, notwithstanding we are a nation of liberty, more
publick and private prisons, and houses of confinement, than
any city in Europe, perhaps as many as in all the capital cities
of Europe put together; for example:

Public GAOLS.

The Tower,
Newgate.
Ludgate.
King's Bench.
The Fleet.
Bridewell.
Marshalseas.
The Gatehouse.
Two Counters in the city.
One Counter in the Burrough.
St. Martin's le Grand.
The Clink, formerly the prison
to the Stews.

WhitechapeL
Finsbury.
The Dutchy.
St. Katherines.
Bale-Dock.
Little-Ease.
New-Prison.
New-Bridewell.
Tottil-Fields Bridewell.
Five night prisons, called
Round-houses, &c.

Tolerated, PRISONS.

Bethlem or Bedlam.

One hundred and nineteen

Spunging Houses.
Fifteen Private Mad-Houses.
The King's Messengers-Houses.
The Sergeant at Arms's Officers

Houses.
The Black Rod Officers-Houses.

Cum aliis.

Three Pest-houses.
The Admiralty Officers-
Houses.

Tip-staffs Houses.
Chancery Officers Houses.

354

DEFOE'S TOUR

N.B. All these private houses of confinement, are pretended
to be little purgatories, between prison and liberty, places of
advantage for the keeping prisoners at their own request, till
they can get friends to deliver them, and so avoid going into
publick prisons; tho' in some of them, the extortion is such, and
the accommodation so bad, that men choose to be carried
away directly.

This has often been complained of, and hopes had of redress;
but the rudeness and avarice of the officers prevails, and the
oppression is sometimes very great; but that by the way.

In a word; To sum up my description of London, take the
following heads; There are in this great mass of buildings thus
called London,

Twenty-seven publick prisons,
musick-wor- Eight publick schools, called

Two cathedrals.

Four choirs for
ship.

One hundred and thirty five
parish churches.

Nine new churches unfinished,
being part of fifty appointed
to be built.

Sixty nine chapels where the
Church of England service
is perform'd.

Two churches at Deptford,
taken into the limits now
describ'd.

Twenty eight foreign
churches.

Besides Dissenters meetings of
all persuasions;

Popish chapels; and

One Jews synagogue.

There are also, thirteen hos-
pitals, besides lesser charities,
calTd Alms-houses, of which
they reckon above a hun-
dred, many of which have
chapels for divine service.

Three colleges.

Free Schools.

Eighty three Charity Schools.

Fourteen markets for flesh.

Two for live cattle, besides
two herb-markets.

Twenty three other markets,
as describ'd.

Fifteen Inns of Court.

Four fairs.

Twenty seven squares, be-
sides those within any single
building, as the Temple,
Somerset House, &c

Five publick bridges.

One town-house, or Guild-
Hall.

One Royal Exchange.

Two other Exchanges only for
shops.

One Custom-house.

Three Artillery Grounds.

Four Pest-houses.

Two bishops palaces;
and

Three royal palaces.

Having dwelt thus long in the city, I mean properly called so,
I must be the shorter in my account of other things.

CITY OF LONDON 355

The Court end of the town, now so prodigiously increased,
as is said before, would take up a volume by itself, and, indeed,
whole volumes are written on the subject.

The king's palace, tho' the receptacle of all the pomp and
glory of Great Britain, is really mean, in comparison of the
rich furniture within, I mean the living furniture, the glorious
Court of the King of Great Britain: The splendor of the nobility,
the wealth and greatness of the attendants, the oeconomy of
the house, and the real grandeur of the whole royal family,
out-does all the Courts of Europe, even that of France itself,
as it is now managed since the death of Lewis the Great.

But the palace of St. James's is, I say, too mean, and only
seems to be honoured with the Court, while a more magnificent
fabrick may be erected, where the King of England usually
resided, I mean at White-Hall.

The ruins of that old palace, seem to predict, that the time
will come, when that Phoenix shall revive, and when a building
shall be erected there, suiting the majesty and magnificence of
the British princes, and the riches of the British nation.

Many projects have been set on foot for the re-building the
antient palace of White-hall; but most of them have related
rather to a fund for raising the money, than a model for the
building: But as I once saw a model for the palace itself, know
its author, and when it was proposed, and that I still believe
that scheme will, at last, be the ground-plot of the work itself,
I believe it will not be disagreeable to give a brief account
of the design.

A SCHEME FOR A ROYAL PALACE IN THB
PLACE OF WHITE-HALL

First, it was proposed, That the whole building should be of
Portland stone, and all the front be exactly after the model of the
Banquetting House, with such alterations only, as the length and
height of the building made necessary.

That the first floor of the building should be raised from the
present surface, at least eight feet, as the present building of the
Banquetting House now is.

That the whole building should make four fronts, one to the
water-side and one to the canal in the park, a third to the north
facing Charing-Cross, and the fourth to the south facing King-street
in Westminster.

That every front should contain 400 yards, or 1200 feet, in length;
that there should be four areas or squares in the inside of the
building, the first from the north entrance to be oblong, taking up

356 DEFOE'S TOUR

the whole length of the building from east to west, and that then
a long building should cross the whole work, eighty feet broad, and
from the east range one thousand feet broad to the west; and in the
middle of which, should be a great arch or gate looking to the south
gate of the palace : That the other side of the palace be divided into
three squares, having two ranges of buildings to run cross them from
south to north, and each range to joyn the great range of building
which runs from east to west.

That the whole building be withdrawn from the river so far, at
least, as where the statue of King James II. now stands, and a
spacious terras to be carried on into tie Thames twelve feet beyond
low-water-mark, and over the river a handsome foot-bridge of
twelve great arches only, with a causeway at the end over St. George's
Fields; That the terras and space between the palace and the water,
be made into a fine garden, with an orangery on the north side,
reaching to the edge of the terras so effectually, as it may cover
the garden from the view of any of the buildings on the Strand side,
and a royal bagnio at the other end likewise, to cover the necessary
buildings for the kitchins which are behind it.

For the extent north, 'tis proposed, That all the buildings be
taken down to the wall of Northumberland House, on that side;
and to the north side of the Spring Garden, opposite to Suffolk-
street and the Hay-Market on the other side; so the front of the
building that way, will extend from the hither part of Scotland-
yard-Gate, to Prince Rupert's Garden, and the gate of the palace
being in the center of the building, will open in that which is now
called the Spring Garden.

One gate of the palace opening thus north, a ballustrade of iron,
like that which surrounds St. Paul's Church, should take in a large
parade, reaching to the Meuse-Gate, a space for the street only
excepted, and in proportion the other way towards Pall-Mali; and
here on the east side, and on the west side, two large guard-houses
should be erected, fitted, the one for the horse guards, and the
other for the foot, both within the ballustrade, but without the
palace, and two smaller guard-houses for detachments of both, be
likewise placed on the south side, all at a proper distance from the
main building, and all low built.

The canal in the park would be necessarily filled up for about a
hundred yards, for the extent of the building that way; the street
that now is, must, at the same time, be turned, and a large street
for communication with Westminster, be allowed to cross the park
from the Pall-Mall south, towards Westminster, to come out at
the new iron gate, now leading to Queen's-Square and Tottil-street;
but no houses to be built in it, and four gates in the said street, to
lead over the street, from the first floor of the palace, by galleries
into the park; All buildings adjoining to the park to be taken down,
nor any private doors or keys to be allowed; a stone wall of twenty
feet high and eight feet thick, to be built round the park, and the
park to be extended west, by taking in Buckingham House, with
its gardens.

In this building, the proposer's scheme was, To have all the offices
of the King's Exchequer, the Revenue, the Council, the Secretaries

CITY OF LONDON 357

of State, the Admiralty, the Courts of Justice, and both Houses of
Parliament, contain'd within the palace, as was the usage in former
times.

To this purpose, the cross range of buildings, going from east to
west, through the center of the palace, and looking into the great
oblong court, which would contain a thousand feet, exclusive of the
east and west fronts, and of the great arch or gate in the center,
should be divided thus; That part on the east side of the gate to
contain two spacious rooms, one for the House of Peers, the other
for the House of Commons, with sufficient offices, galleries of com-
munication, rooms of conference for committees, a court of requests,
&c. for the use of the members, and rooms for all other occasions of
Parliament business.

The west part of this great range of building to contain a hall, as
Westminster-Hall now is, with proper separated courts for the
King's Bench, Chancery, Common-Pleas, and Exchequer-Bars, and
a distinct court fix*d, and suitably prepared, for tryals of peers or
others, by the House of Lords, notwithstanding which, this court
would be sufficiently large to celebrate the Coronation feast, with
all its ceremonies, the building being from the middle arch to the
west range of buildings, five hundred feet long at least, and one
hundred feet broad.

Thus the king's Court of Justice, his High Court of Parliament,
and all the affairs of the Administration, would be managed within
his own house, as it anciently was; and as the two cross ranges of
buildings, which form'd the three courts on the south side of the
Parliament House and Hall of Justice, would be very large, they
would afford room for the Lord Chamberlain's Office, the Admiralty,
the War Office, the Green-Cloth, the Wardrobe Office, and all the
other family offices, too many to name here.

Then the main range of building on the north side of the palace,
should contain (because nearest lie city) the Treasury Office, the
Secretary's Offices, the Council Chambers, and the Exchequer Offices.

The apartments of the other three ranges to be wholly taken up
with the king's houshold: for example;

1. For the royal apartments, being the king's lodgings, rooms of
state and audience, the closet, the oratory, and all the rooms belong-
ing to the apartment of a king; this to take up the east range,
fronting the terras garden and the Thames, and looking directly
towards the city.

2. The queen s lodgings to be in the east end of the south range,
fronting the City of Westminster; but between the said city and the
lodgings, the queen's garden to be extended from the terras garden
mentioned before, to a wall joining a passage from Westminster to
the south gate, which wall begins at the iron balustrade and gate
of the great parade before the south entrance of the palace, and
ends at the outer stone wall, which surrounds the garden and park.
The family for the royal children, to take up the west end of the
said south range of buildings, with the like garden also, and a gate
joyning the two walls in the middle of the passage, leading to the
south gate of the palace, by which, with an easy ascent of steps, a
communication should be made between the said two gardens.

358 DEFOE'S TOUR

The west range of buildings fronting the park, should be divided
also into two parts, the first being the north end, to consist of royal
apartments for the entertainment of foreign princes and foreign
ambassadors, at the pleasure of the king, and the other half, or
south end to be called the Prince's Lodgings, and to be for the
Prince of Wales for the time being, and his family.

The great arch in the center of the whole, and in the middle of
the long range of buildings, to support a large church or chapel
royal, for the service of all the houshold, and for preaching before
the Houses of Parliament on publick days, as is now at St. Mar-
garet's and at the Abbey: over this church a large dome or cupola
of stone, covered with copper and double gilded.

At the two angles of the building, fronting the river, two private
chapels, the one for the queen and her houshold, and the other for
the king and his houshold, and either of these to support a dome
covered with copper and gilded, as before, tho' smaller than the
other, with a large lanthorn on the top, and a small spire, all of stone.

The fronts to have pavilions and pediments in their proper places;
the whole work to be built with the utmost regularity, in the
Corinthian order of building, and with all possible beauty and
ornament.

The galleries of the royal chapel to be supported with pillars of
marble, of the finest and most beautiful workmanship also, the E.
end of the building, the altar and balustrade of the same, also
niches, with their columns, and pediments of the same, and two
pillars of the finest marble, eighteen feet high, standing single, one
on each side the steps to the communion table, and on them two
statues of the apostles St. Paul and St. Peter, or as the king shall
direct, the statues to be large as the Hf e, the capitals of the columns
gilded.

All the carv'd work in the walls, and round the cornish, and
architrave within and without, 'double gilded; the ceiling of the
chapel to contain one great oval, the rim of it of stone, carved as
at St. Paul's, and gilded, and the middle painted by the best masters,
with either a figure of the ascention or the resurrection, the device
to be new.

All the carved work in wood, and mouldings, and cornish in the
quire and over the stalls, to be double gilded, as likewise of the
organ and organ loft.

All the gates and door cases in the out-sides of the work, with
all the columns and carv'd work belonging to them, especially the
north and south gates, and the two fronts of the great arch in the
middle, to be of the finest marble.

All the chimneys and foot paces before them, to be of marble of
divers colours, as well English as foreign: The steps, also, of the
king and queen's great stair-cases to be of marble, all the other
stair-cases to be of the finest free-stone, fetch'd from Stamford in
Lincolnshire, where is the whitest stone in England, and to be built
as the stair-case in that called the Queen's House at Greenwich; no
wood to be allowed in any of the stair-cases, except for wainscotting
up the side.

All the great stair-cases to be painted in the most curious manner

CITY OF LONDON 359

possible, as also the ceilings of all the royal apartments, as well the
queen's as the king's.

An equestrian statue of the king in the center of one half of the
first great court, and the like of the late King William in the
other half.

Large fountains to be kept constantly playing in the smaller
courts, and in the terras garden.

Buckingham-House to be bought, and taken in, to be made a
royal lodge for the park, with an observatory, and a chamber of
rarities: And Marlborough House to be bought, and be made a
green-house for exotick plants, and all botannick rarities, and the
old royal garden to be again restored, laid open to the park, and be
a planted orangery; all the orange and lemon trees to be planted in
the earth, so as not to be removed in the winter, but covered and
secured separately, as at Beddington in Surrey.

A large building to be added under the wall in the park, next to
Tottil-street, Westminster, with separate wards for keeping the
lyons and other the strange and foreign bred brutes, which are now
kept in the Tower, and care to be taken to furnish it with all the
rarities of that kind that the world can procure, with fowls, also, of
the like foreign kinds.

A royal bagnio annexed to the green-house in the terras garden,
like that for the ladies in the queen's garden; but both distant from
the palace.

A large alottment from the lodgings at the two ends of the N. and
E. ranges, for the king's kitchens, which should have also an addi-
tional range of low buildings, separate from the palace, and running
down to the water-side; this building would stand just between the
terras garden wall, which should hide it, and the wall of Northum-
berland House: And here (a dock being made for that purpose) all
heavy things, needful for the kitchens, and for the whole palace,
should be brought in by water; as coals, and wood, and beer, and
wine, &c. at the east end, and the prince's at the west end; the
kitchens for the queen and the younger princes or childrens apart-
ments, to be at the other extremes of their respective appartments.

Every range of building to have double rows of rooms on the
same floor; but the royal apartments to have also a long gallery
behind them, reaching the whole length, the one end to joyn to the
Treasury Office and Council Chamber in the north range, and the
other end to reach the queen's royal lodgings at the south range;
on the east side of this gallery and in the peers, between the
windows on the west side, should be placed, all the fine paintings
that the Court are possess'd of, or that can be procur'd.

In the north west angle of the building, a large room or rooms
for the royal library, with apartments for the library keeper;
galleries in the great room to come at the books, and a cupola upon
the top.

In the south west angle, a like repository for the records, as well
of the Exchequer as of Parliament, with apartments for the record-
keeper, or register, and a dome over it as at the other angle.

The north and south gates of the palace to be embellished in the
most exquisite manner possible, and the statues of the king and

360 DEFOE'S TOUR

prince over the arch wrought in marble, in the finest manner possible;
the gates to rise twenty five feet above the building, with an attick,
and such other work as shall be contrived for the utmost beauty
and ornament.

The great stair-cases to be in the angles of the building, built
projecting into the squares, that of the king's apartment, to open
into the first court, and into the garden also, and in the like manner
the queen's stair-case, at the other side, to open into the little
square and into the privy gardens.

The stair-cases to land upon the galleries, before they enter the
apartments, and for that reason, to be in the inside of the building,
and to be distinct from it, to prevent taking up any of the apart-
ments of the angles, which are appointed for other purposes; in the
middle of the king's great gallery, doors should be made, leading
into the great middle range of buildings; by one of which, his majesty
may enter a gallery leading to the House of Lords, and by the other,
enter thro* another gallery to the chapel royal: In the great gallery
and in the hall, sixteen large bouffetts or cupboards of gold and
gilt plate of all kinds, to be set open on publick days.

Likewise by these doors, the king will have ready access to all
the offices, to all the lodgings, and through the gates formerly
mention' d, crossing the great New Street, which have steps to pass
over their arches, and descend into the park.

This, indeed, is but an embryo; but it must be confessed, it
would be a magnificent building, and would very well suit the
grandeur of the British Court: Here a King of Great Britain
would live like himself, and half the world would run over to
see and wonder at it.

This whole building, the person projecting it, offered to finish,
that is to say, all the out-side work, masonry and bricklayers
work, with plaisterers, glasiers, plumbers, carpenters and
joyners work, carvers, stone-cutters, copper work, iron work,
and lead, including ballustrade and fine gates, and, in a word,
the whole palace, except painting, gilding, gardening and
waterworks, for two million three hundred thousand pounds,
the king giving timber, but the undertaker to cut it down, and
bring it to the place, the king giving the Portland stone also,
and bringing it by water to the place.

Also the king to lay in four thousand blocks of Italian marble
of the usual dimensions, the builder to make all the imagery
that are to be made of stone; but the king to be at the charge
of the equestrian statues in brass; the builder to form all the
fountains and basins for the water-works; but all the pipes,
vasa, busts, and statues in the gardens, to be at the king's
expence.

But I return to the description of things which really exist,

CITY OF LONDON 361

and are not imaginary: As the court is now stated, all the offices
and places for business are scatter'd about.

The Parliament meets, as they ever did, while the Court was
at Westminster, in the king's old palace, and there are the
courts of justice also, and the officers of the Exchequer, nor can
it be said, however convenient the place is made for them; but
that it has a little an air of venerable, tho* ruin'd antiquity:
What is the Court of Requests, the Court of Wards, and the
Painted Chamber, tho' lately repaired, but the corps of the old
English Grandeur laid in state?

The whole, it is true, was anciently the king's palace or
royal house, and it takes up full as much ground as the new
palace, which I have given a scheme of, would do, except only
the gardens and parks, the space before it, which is still called
Palace-yard, is much greater than that which would be at the
north gate of the palace of White-hall, as proposed. The gardens,
indeed, were not large, but not despicable neither, being the
same where my Lord Hallifax's house and gardens now are,
and took up all the ground which we see now built upon between
the river and the old palace, where the tellers of the Exchequer,
as wellj as the auditor, have handsome dwellings and gardens
also.

But, alas ! as I say, tho' they seem now even in their ruins,
great; yet compared to the beauty and elegancy of modern
living, and of royal buildings in this age, what are they!

The royal apartments, the prince's lodgings, the great officers
apartments, what are they now, but little offices for clerks,
rooms for coffee-houses, auctions of pictures, pamphlet and
toy-shops?

Even St. Stephen's Chapel, formerly the royal chapel of the
palace, but till lately beautify'd for the convenience of the
House of Commons, was a very indifferent place, old and decayed :
The House of Lords is a venerable old place, indeed; but how
mean, how incoherent, and how straitned are the several avenues
to it, and rooms about it? the matted gallery, the lobby, the
back ways the king goes to it, how short are they all of the
dignity of the place, and the glory of a King of Great Britain,
with the Lords and Commons, that so often meet there?

Some attempts were made lately, to have restored the decrepid
circumstances of this part of the building, and orders were given
to Mr. Benson, then surveyor of the king's buildings, to do his
part towards it; but it was directed so ill, or understood so little,
that some thought he was more likely to throw the old fabnck

362 DEFOE'S TOUR

down, than to set it to rights, for which ignorance and vanity,
'tis said, some have not fared as they deserv'd.

It is true, the sitting of the Parliament is by the order of the
Houses themselves, accommodated as well as the place will
admit; but how much more beautiful it would be in such a
building, as is above contrived, I leave to the contriver to describe
and to other people to judge.

Come we next to Westminster-Hall; 'tis true, it is a very
noble Gothick building, ancient, vastly large, and the finest
roof of its kind in England, being one hundred feet wide; but
what a wretched figure does it make without doors; the front,
a vast pinacle or pedement, after the most ancient and almost
forgotten part of the Gothick way of working; the building
itself, resembles nothing so much as a great barn of three hundred
feet long, and really looks like a barn at a distance.

Nay, if we view the whole building from without doors, 'tis
like a great pile of something, but a stranger would be much
at a loss to know what; and whether it was a house, or a church,
or, indeed, a heap of churches; being huddled all together, with
differing and distant roofs, some higher, some lower, some
standing east and west, some north and south, and some one
way, and some another.

The Abbey, or Collegiate Church of Westminster, stands next
to this; a venerable old pile of building, it is indeed, but so old
and weak, that had it not been taken in hand some years ago,
and great cost bestowed in upholding and repairing it, we might,
by this time, have called it a heap, not a pile, and not a church,
but the ruins of a church.

But it begins to stand upon new legs now, and as they con-
tinue to work upon the repairs of it, the face of the whole
building will, in a short while, be intirely new.

This is the repository of the British kings and nobility, and
very fine monuments are here seen over the graves of our
ancient monarchs; the particulars are too long to enter into
here, and are so many times described by several authors, that
it would be a vain repetition to enter upon it here; besides, we
have by no means any room for it.

The monarchs of Great Britain are always crown'd here,
even King James II. submitted to it, and to have it perform'd by
a Protestant bishop. It is observable, that our kings and queens
make always two solemn visits to this church, and very rarely,
if ever, come here any more, viz. to be crown'd and to be buried.

Two things I must observe here, and with that I close the

CITY OF LONDON 363

account of it. i. Tis very remarkable, that the royal vault,
in which the English royal family was laid, was filled up with
Queen Ann; so that just as the family was extinct above, there
was no room to have buried any more below. 2. It is become
such a piece of honour to be buried in Westminster-Abbey, that
the body of the church begins to be crowded with the bodies of
citizens, poets, seamen, and parsons, nay, even with very mean
persons, if they have but any way made themselves known in
the world; so that in time, the royal ashes will be thus mingled
with common dust, that it will leave no room either for king
or common people, or at least not for their monuments, some
of which also are rather pompously foolish, than solid and to the
purpose.

Near to this church is the Royal Free-School, the best of its
kind in England, not out-done either by Winchester or Eaton,
for a number of eminent scholars.

The antiquities of this church, for it is very ancient, are
published by two or three several authors; but are particularly
to be seen in Dugdale's Monasticon. The revenues of it were
very great, and the abbot sat as a spiritual peer in the House of
Lords. The revenues are still very large, and the dean is generally
Bishop of Rochester; the fate of the late bishop I desire to bury
with Kim, who is gone to oblivion. The Dean and Chapter have
still great privileges as well as revenues, and particularly the
civil government, or temporal jurisdiction of the city of West-
minster, is so far in them, that the High-Steward and the High-
BailifE are named by them absolutely, without any reserve
either to king or people. Their present High-Steward is the
Earl of Arran, brother to the late Duke of Ormond, and their
High-Bailiff, is William Norris, Esq.

Being got into this part of Westminster, I shall finish it as
I go, that I may not return; 'Tis remarkable, that the whole
city, called properly, Westminster, and standing on the S. side
of the park, is but one parish, and is the only city of one parish
in England. There is now another great church erected, or
rather erecting, by the commissioners for building fifty^new
churches; but they have been strangely mistaken in the situa-
tion, which is a fenny marshy ground, and it is not found so
able to support the weight as, perhaps, they were told it would;
I say no more. The building was very curious, especially^ roof;
but the towers are not so beautiful as it is thought was intended,
the foundation not being to be trusted.

The Earl of Peterborough's house stands at the extremity of

364 DEFOE'S TOUR

the buildings, and is the point of measurement for the length of
London, which from that house to Lime-house, is reckoned seven
miles and a quarter, and some rods: This house might have been
a monitor for the builders of the new church, for they tell us
it has sunk several yards, since it was first built, tho' this I do
not affirm.

There are three chapels of ease to St. Margaret's in this
part of Westminster, besides that, great numbers of people go
to the Abbey, so that there is no want of churches. There is
but one meeting-house in this whole part, which is called
Calamy's Meeting, and was formerly supplied by Mr. Stephen
Lobb, who, tho' a Dissenter, lived and died a Jacobite.

The Cottonian Library is kept here in an ancient building,
near Westminster-Hall gate; we were told it would be removed
to the royal library, and then, that it would be removed to
a house to be built on purpose; but we see neither yet in hand.
This is one of the most valuable collections in Britain, and, the
Bodleian Library excepted, is, perhaps, the best: It has in it
some books and manuscripts invaluable for their antiquity;
but I have not room so much as to enter upon giving an account
of the particulars.

This part of Westminster has but one street, which gives it
a communication with London, and this is called King-street,
a long, dark, dirty and very inconvenient passage; but there
seems to be no remedy for it, for most passengers get out of it
through the Privy Garden, and some by private passages into
the park, as at Locket's, at the Cock-Pit, and the new gate from
Queen's-Square; but these are all upon sufferance.

From hence we come through two very handsome, tho'
ancient gates, into the open palace before White-Hall and the
Banqueting-house.

Having mentioned White-Hall already, I have nothing more
to say of it, but that it was, and is not, but may revive. There
is, doubtless, a noble situation, fit to contain a royal palace,
equal to Versailles; but I have given you my thoughts on that
subject at large.

Nor can I dwell here upon a description of his majesty's
Court, or an account of the politicks managed there; it does
not relate to this work; let it suffice to say, his majesty resides,
especially all the winter, at St. James's; but the business of the
government, is chiefly carried on at the Cock-pit: This is a
royal building, was once part of White-hall, first the Duke of
Monmouth lived in it, then Prince George of Denmark and his

CITY OF LONDON 365

princess, afterwards Queen Ann, and since the fire at White-
Hall, the Treasury, the Secretary's office, the Council Chamber,
the Board of Trade, and the Lord Chamberlain, hold all their
particular offices here; and here there is also, a by-way out of
Duke-street into the park.

From thence we come to the Horse Guards, a building com-
modious enough, built on purpose, as a barrack for a large
detachment of the Horse-Guards, who keep their post here,
while attending on duty; over it are offices for payment of
the troops, and a large court of judicature, for holding councils
of war, for tryal of deserters and others, according to the
articles of war.

In the same range of buildings, stood the Admiralty Office,
built by the late King William; but tho' in itself a spacious
building, is found so much too narrow now the business is so
much increased, and as there is a sufficient piece of spare ground
behind it, to inlarge the building, we find a new and spacious
office is now building in the same place, which shall be sufficient
to all the uses required.

This office is, perhaps, of the most importance of any of the
publick parts of the administration, the royal navy being the
sinews of our strength, and the whole direction of it being in
the hands of the commissioners for executing this office. The
Navy and the Victualling Offices, are but branches of this
administration, and receive their orders from hence, as likewise
the docks and yards receive their orders from the navy: the
whole being carried on with the most exquisite order and
dispatch. The Admiralty has been in commission ever since the
death of Prince George; the present commissioners are,

Right Honourable James Earl of Berkeley.

Sir John Jennings.

John Cockburn, Esq;

William Chetwynd, Esq;

Sir John Norris.

Sir Charles Wager.

Daniel Pultney, Esq;

From this part of the town, we come into the publick streets,
where nothing is more remarkable than the hurries of the
people; Charing-Cross is a mixture of Court and city; Man's
Coffee-house is the Exchange Alley of this part of the town, and
'tis perpetually throng'd with men of business, as the others
are with men of play and pleasure.

366 DEFOE'S TOUR

From hence advancing a little, we see the great equestrian
statue of King Charles the First in brass, a costly, but a curious
piece; however, it serves sufficiently, to let us know who it is,
and why erected there. The circumstances are two, he faces
the place where his enemies * triumphed over him, and triumphs,
that is, tramples in the place where his murtherers were hang'd. 8

From this place due north, are the king's stables, called the
Meuse, where the king's horses, especially his^ coach-horses,
are kept, and the coaches of state are set up; it is a very large
place, and takes up a great deal of ground, more than is made
use of: It contains two large squares, besides an out-let east,
where is the managerie for teaching young gentlemen to ride
the great saddle; in the middle of the first court is a smith or
farryer's house and shop, a pump and horse-pond, and I see
little else remarkable, but old scatterM buildings; and, indeed,
this place standing where a noble square of good buildings might
be erected, I do not wonder that they talk of pulling it down,
contracting the stables into less room, and building a square of
good houses there, which would, indeed, be a very great im-
provement, and I doubt not will be done.

On the right side of the street, coming from White-Hall, is
Northumberland-House, so called, because belonging to the
Northumberland family for some ages; but descending to the
Duke of Somerset in right of marriage, from the late dutchess,
heiress of the house of Piercy.

*Tis an ancient, but a very good house, the only misfortune
of its situation is, its standing too near the street; the back part
of the house is more modern and beautiful than the front, and
when you enter the first gate, you come into a noble square
fronting the fine lodgings: 'Tis a large and very well design'd
building, and fit to receive a retinue of one hundred in family;
nor does the duke's family come so far short of the number, as
not very handsomely to fill the house.

The present duke having married the greatest heiress in
Britain, and enjoy'd her and the estate for above forty years,
and besides, having been master of the horse many years also,
he is immensely rich, and very well merits the good fortune he
has met with.

Advancing thence to the Hay-Market, we see, first, the great
new theatre, a very magnificent building, and perfectly accom-

*The statue faces the broad place before White-Hall, where the king
was beheaded.

The gibet, where the regicides were executed, stood just where the
statue now stands.

CITY OF LONDON 367

modated for the end for which it was built, tho' the entertain-
ment there of late, has been chiefly operas and balls

These meetings are called BALLS, the word masquerade not
being so well relished by the English, who, tho' at first fond
of the novelty, began to be sick of the thing on many accounts*
However, as I cannot in justice say any tiling to recommend
tnem, and am by no means, to make this work be a satyr upon
any thing; I choose to say no more; but go on.

From hence westward and northward, lie those vastly ex-
tended buildings, which add so exceedingly to the magnitude
of the whole body, and of which I have already said so much:
It would be a task too great for this work, to enter into a
description of all the fine houses, or rather palaces of the nobility
in these parts :^ To touch them superficially, and by halves, is
too much to imitate what I complain of in others, and as I design
a particular account of all the houses of the nobility and men of
quality in London, and the country fifteen miles round, in a
work by itself; I bespeak my readers patience, and go on.

The hospitals in and about the city of London, deserve a little
further observation, especially those more remarkable for their
magnitude, as,

I. Bethlem or Bedlam: This and Bridewell, indeed, go to-
gether, for though they are two several houses, yet they are
incorporated together, and have the same governors; also
the president, treasurer, clerk, physician and apothecary
are the same; but the stewards and the revenue are different,
and so are the benefactions; but to both very great.

The orders for the government of the hospital of Bethlem
are exceeding good, and a remarkable instance of the good
disposition of the gentlemen concerned in it, especially these
that follow;

1. That no person, except the proper officers who tend them,
be allowed to see the lunaticks of a Sunday.

2. That no person be allowed to give the lunaticks strong
drink, wine, tobacco or spirits, or to sell any such thing in the
hospital.

3. That no servant of the house shall take any money given
to any of the lunaticks to their own use; but that it shall be
carefully kept for them till they are recovered, or laid out for
them in such things as the committee approves.

4. That no officer or servant shall beat or abuse, or offer
any force to any lunatick; but on absolute necessity. The rest
of the orders are for the good government of the house.

* N 820

368 DEFOE'S TOUR

This hospital was formerly in the street now called Old
Bedlam, and was very ancient and ruinous: The new building
was erected at the charge of the city in 1676, and is the most
beautiful structure for such a use that is in the world, and was
finished from its foundation in fifteen months; it was said to
be taken ill at the Court of France, that it was built after the
fashion of one of the King of France's palaces.

The number of people who are generally under cure in this
hospital, is from 130 to 150 at a time.

There are great additions now making to this hospital, par-
ticularly for the relief and subsistence of incurables, of which
no full account can be given, because they are not yet finished,
or the full revenue ascertained: The first benefactor and author
of this design itself, was Sir William Withers late alderman, and
who had been lord mayor, who left 5ooZ. to begin it with.

II. The hospital of Bridewell, as it is an hospital, so it is
also a house of correction. The house was formerly the king's
city palace; but granted to the city to be in the nature of what
is now called a work-house, and has been so employed, ever
since the year 1555.

As idle persons, vagrants, &c. are committed to this house
for correction, so there are every year, several poor lads brought
up to handicraft trades, as apprentices, and of these the care
is in the governors, who maintain them out of the standing
revenues of the house.

There are two other Bridewells, properly so called, that is to
say, houses of correction; one at Clarkenwell, called New
Prison, being the particular Bridewell for the county of Middle-
sex, and another in Tuttle-fields, for the city of Westminster.

The other city hospitals, are the Blue-coat Hospital for poor
freemens orphan children, and the two hospitals for sick and
maimed people, as St. Bartholomew's and St. Thomas's: These
three are so well known by all people that have seen the city
of London, and so universally mention'd by all who have
written of it, that little can be needful to add; however I shall
say something as an abridgment.

III. Christ's Hospital was originally constituted by King
Edward VI. who has the honour of being the founder of it,
as also of Bridewell; but the original design was, and is owing
to the lord mayor and aldermen of London, and the Christian
endeavours of that glorious martyr, Dr. Ridley then Bishop
of London, who never ceased moving his charitable master, the
king, till he brought him to join in the foundation. The design

CITY OF LONDON 369

is for entertaining, educating,, nourishing and bringing up the
poor children of the citizens, such as, their parents being dead,
or fathers, at least, have no way to be supported, but are reduced
to poverty.

Of these, the hospital is now so far increased in substance, by
the benefactions of worthy gentlemen contributors, they now
maintain near a thousand, who have food, cloathing and
instruction, useful and sufficient learning, and exceeding good
discipline; and at the proper times they are put out to trades,
suitable to their several genius's and capacities, and near five
thousand pounds a year are expended on this charity.

IV. St. Bartholomew's Hospital adjoyns to Christ Church,
and St. Thomas's is in Southwark, both which, however, being
the same in kind, their description may come under one head,
tho' they are, indeed, two foundations, and differently incor-
porated: The first founder is esteem'd to be King Henry VIII.
whose statue in stone and very well done, is, for that very
reason, lately erected in the new front, over the entrance to the
Cloyster in West-Smithfield: The king gave 500 marks a year,
towards the support of the house, which was then founded for
an hundred poor sick, and the city was obliged to add 500
marks a year more to it.

From this small beginning, this hospital rose to the greatness
we now see it arrived at, of which take the following account
for one year, viz. 1718;
Cur'd and discharg'd, of sick, maimed and wounded, ) ^g

from all parts J

Buried at the expence of the house 198

Remaining under cure 5 J 3

V. St. Thomas's Hospital in Southwark, has a different
foundation, but to the same purpose; it is under the same
government, viz. the lord mayor, aldermen and commonalty
of the city of London, and had a revenue of about soooZ. per
annum, about 100 years ago. , , . , c*. -D

This hospital has received greater benefactions than St. Bar-
tholomew's; but then 'tis also said to have suffered Beater
losses, especially by several great fires in Southwark and else-
where, as by the necessity of expensive buildings, which,
notwithstanding the charitable gifts of divers great benefactors,
has cost the hospital great sums. The state of this hospital ^is
so advanced at this time, that in the same year as above, viz.
1718, the state of the house was as follows;

370 DEFOE'S TOUR

Cur'd and discharged of sick, wounded and maimed, )

from all parts I

Buried at the expence of the house 216

Remaining under cure 566

Adjoining to this of St. Thomas's, is lately laid a noble foun-
dation of a new hospital, by the charitable gift and single
endowment of one person, and, perhaps, the greatest of its kind,
next to that of Sutton's Hospital, that ever was founded in this
nation by one person, whether private or publick, not excepting
the kings themselves.

This will, I suppose, be called Guy's Hospital, being to be
built and endowed at the sole charge of one Mr. Thomas Guy,
formerly a bookseller in Lombard Street, who lived to see the
said hospital not only designed, the ground purchased and
cleared, but the building begun, and a considerable progress
made in it, and died while these sheets were in the press.

It was not till this gentleman died, that the world were told
it was to be a separate hospital; but it was generally understood
to have been intended for a ward, or an addition to the old
hospital of St. Thomas's, for the reception of such as were
accounted incurable.

But when Mr. Guy died, his will being made publick, it
appeared, that it was really a separate, independent and distinct
hospital, under distinct governors, and for a separate purpose,
to wit, for receiving such poor persons as have been dismissed
from other hospitals as incurable.

Nor are these restrained to the patients of the adjoining
hospital of St. Thomas only; but they are allowed to receive
such from St. Bartholomew's also, and also from Bethlehem,
only with this restriction as to the latter, That the number of
incurable lunaticks shall never exceed twenty at a time.

This hospital is, by Mr. Guy's will, to consist of two great
squares of buildings, in which, besides the offices and accom-
modation for necessary servants and overseers, who must be
lodg'd in the house, such as stewards, treasurer, masters,
matrons, nurses, &c. are to be beds and appartments furnished
for four hundred patients, who are all to be supplied with
lodging and attendance, food and physick.

What the revenue, when settled, will be; what the building
will amount to when finished; what the purchase of the land,
and what the expence of finishing and furnishing it, cannot be
estimated, 'till it be further look'd into; but we are told without

CITY OF LONDON 371

doors, that besides all the expence of purchase, building,
furnishing and finishing as above; there will be left more than
two hundred thousand pounds for endowing the hospital with
a settled revenue, for maintaining the said poor, and yet the
charitable founder was so immensely rich, that besides leaving
four hundred pounds a year to the Blue-coat Hospital of London,
and besides building an hospital for fourteen poor people at
Tamworth in Staffordshire, where he was chosen representative;
and besides several considerable charities which he had given
in his life-time; He also gave away, hi legacies, to his relations
and others, above a hundred thousand pound more, among
which 'tis observable, That there is a thousand pounds a piece
given to near eighty several persons, most of them of his own
relations; so that he cannot, as has been said by some, be said
to give a great charity to the poor, and forget his own family.

How Mr. Guy amass 'd all this wealth/ having been himself
in no publick employment or office of trust, or profit, and only
carrying on the trade of a bookseller, till within a few years of
his death, that is not the business of this book; 'tis enough to
say, he was a thriving, frugal man, who God was pleased
exceedingly to bless, in whatever he set his hand to, knowing
to what good purposes he laid up his gains: He was never
married, and lived to be above eighty years old; so that the
natural improvements of this money, by common interest,
after it was first grown to a considerable bulk, greatly increased
the sum.

This hospital is left to the immediate direction of his executors,
and the governors, named in his will, who are at present most of
them, if not all, governors of St. Thomas's Hospital, and he
has appointed them to apply to his majesty and the Parliament
to have them incorporated. The executors are as follows;

Sir Gregory Page, Bart, ap- Mr. Thomas Hollis Sen.

pointed also to be first presi- John Kenrick, Esq;

dent of the corporation, John Lade, Esq;

when obtained. Dr. Richard Mead

Charles Joy, Esq; appointed Moses Raper,^Esq;

also treasurer of the house. Mr. John Sprint.
William Clayton, Esq;

Also he desires, That when the corporation shall be obtained
as above, either by Letters Patent or Act of Parliament^ all the
nine persons named as above, to be his executors, with the

372 DEFOE'S TOUR

fourteen following, may be the first committee for managing
the said charity, viz.

Mr. Benj. Braine, Sen. Mr. Matthew Howard

Mr. Thomas Clarke Mr. Samuel Lessingham

William Cole, Esq; Mr. Henry Lovell

Dr. William Crow Mr. Samuel Monk

Dr. Francis Fanquier Mr. Joseph Price

Dr. Edward Hulse Mr. Daniel Powell

Mr. Joshua Gee Mr. Thomas Stiles.

Next to these hospitals, whose foundations are so great and
magnificent, is the work-house, or city work-house, properly
so called, which being a late foundation, and founded upon meer
charity, without any settled endowment, is the more remark-
able, for here are a very great number of poor children taken
in, and supported and maintained, fed, cloath'd, taught, and put
out to trades, and that at an exceeding expence, and all this
without one penny revenue.

It is estabHsh'd, or rather the establishment of it, is supported
by an old Act of Parliament, 13, 14. Car. II. impowering the
citizens to raise contributions for the charge of employing the
poor, and suppressing vagrants and beggars, and it is now, by
the voluntary assistance and bounty of benefactors, become so
considerable, that in the year 1715 they gave the following state
of the house, viz.

Vagabonds, beggars, &c. taken into the house,
including fifty-five which remained at the end ( 418
of the preceding year --------

Discharged, including such as were put out to
trades -

Remaining in the house 62

Not one buried that whole year.

But the supplies and charities to this commendable work,
have not of late come in so readily as they used to do, which has
put the governors to some difficulties; upon which, anno 1614,
the Common Council, by virtue of the powers above-mentioned,
agreed to raise five thousand pounds upon the whole city, for
the support of the house; but we do not find that any new
demand has been made since that.

There are three considerable charities given by private
persons in the city of Westminster, viz.

CITY OF LONDON 373

1. The Gray-coat Hospital, founded by a generous subscrip-
tion or contribution; but chiefly by the charity of one

Sands , Esq; It maintains 70 boys and 40 girls, cloathed, fed,
and taughtj and in some measure provided for, by being put
out to trades.

2. The Green-coat Hospital, in the same Fields, founded by
King Charles I. for poor fatherless children of St. Margaret's
parish; and next to this hospital is the house of correction, or
the Westminster Bridewell.

3. The Emanuel Hospital, founded by the Lady Ann Dacres,
for ten poor men, and ten poor women, in the forty-third
year of Queen Elizabeth. Near this, are seven several setts of
alms-houses; but not of any magnitude to be called hospitals.

There has been, also, a very noble hospital erected by contri-
bution of the French refugees, for the maintenance of their
poor: It stands near the Pest-house, in the foot-way to Islington
hi the parish of Cripplegate, and two ranges of new alms-houses
in Kingsland Road beyond Shoreditch Church.

The hospital calTd the Charter House, or Button's Hospital,
is not by this supposed to be forgot, or the honour of it lessen'd.
On the other hand, it must be recorded for ever, to be the greatest
and noblest gift that ever was given for charity, by any one man,
publick or private, in this nation, since history gives us any
account of things; even not the great Bishop of Norwich excepted,
who built the great church of Yarmouth, the cathedral at
Norwich, and the church of St. Mary's at Lynn; The revenue
of Mr. Button's hospital being, besides the purchase of the place,
and the building of the house, and other expences, little less
than 6oooZ. per annum revenue.

The Royal Hospitals at Greenwich and Chelsea, are also not
mentioned in this account, as not being within the reach of
the most extended bounds of the city of London.

These are the principal hospitals, the rest of smaller note are
touch'd before; but it will not be a useless observation, nor
altogether improper to take notice of it here, That this age has
produced some of the most eminent acts of publick charity, and
of the greatest value, I mean from private persons, that can be
found in any age within the reach of our English history,
excepting only that of Button's Hospital; and yet they tell us,
that even that of Mr. Button's is exceeded in this of Mr. Guy's,
considering that this gentleman gave a very noble gift to
this same hospital before; besides that as before, he had
left an hundred thousand pounds in private gifts among his

374 DEFOE'S TOUR

own relations; as to children he had none, for he never was
married.

The other benefactions, I speak of which this age had pro-
duced, are already touch' d at in this work, and may be referred
to in the reading, such as Dr. RatclifFs Gift, amounting to above
forty thousand pounds to the university of Oxford: The gift
of ten thousand pounds to Magdalen College in the same
university, by their late representative; the several charities
of Sir Robert Clayton, Alderman Ask, Sir Stephen Fox,
Dr. Busby, Sir John Morden and others.

These, added to the innumerable number of alms-houses
which are to be seen in almost every part of the city, make it
certain, that there is no city in the world can shew the like
number of charities from private hands, there being, as I am
told, not less than twenty thousand people maintained of
charity, besides the charities of schooling for children, and
besides the collections yearly at the annual feasts of several
kinds, where money is given for putting out children appren-
tices, &c. so that the Papists have no reason to boast, that there
were greater benefactions and acts of charity to the poor given
in their times, than in our Protestant times; and this is indeed,
one of the principal reasons for my making mention of it in this
place; for let any particular age be singled out, and let the
charities of this age, that is to say, for about fifteen or twenty
years past, and the sums of money bestowed by protestants in
this nation on meer acts of charity to the poor, not reckoning
gifts to the church, be cast up, it will appear they are greater
by far, than would be found in England in any the like number
of years, take the time when we will.

Nor do I conclude in this, the money collected by briefs all
over England, upon casualties by fire, though that is an eminent
act of charity as any can be; nor the money given either in
publick or private, for re-building St. Paul's and other churches
demolished by the Fire of London, or the augmentation of poor
benefices by the bounty of Queen Arm, and many other such gifts.

I come now to an account of new edifices and publick buildings,
erected or erecting in and about London, since the writing the
foregoing account; and with this I conclude.

i. The fine new church of St. Martin's in the Fields, with a
very fine steeple, which they tell us is 215 feet high, all wholly
built by the contribution of that great parish, and finished with
the utmost expedition.

CITY OF LONDON 375

2. The new Admiralty Office near White-hall, being on the
same ground^ where the old office stood; but much larger, being
both longer in front and deeper backward, not yet finished.

3. Mr. Guy's new hospital for incurables, mentioned above,
situated on ground purchased for that purpose, adjoyning to
St. Thomas's Hospital hi Southwark, being a most magnificent
building not yet quite finished.

4. Two large wings to the hospital of Bedlam, appointed also
for incurables; proposed first by the charitable disposition of
Sir William Withers deceased; this also not yet finished.

5. A large new meeting-house in Spittle-fields, for the sect
of Dissenters, call'd Baptists, or Antepsedo Baptists.

6. The^South-Sea House in Threadneedle-street, the old house
being intirely pulled down, and several other houses adjoyning
being purchased, the whole building will be new from the
foundation; this not finished.

7. Several very fine new churches, being part of the fifty
churches appointed by Act of Parliament, viz. One in Spittle-
fields, one in Radcliff-High-way, one in Old-street, one at Lime-
house, with a very beautiful tower, and one in Bloomsbury, and
five more not finished.

8. The parish church of St. Botolph without Bishopsgate,
pulled down and re-building, by the contribution of the
inhabitants, not as one of the fifty churches.

N.B. In removing the corpses buried in this church, they
found the body of Sir Paul Pindar, buried there about eighty
years before, which was taken up and deposited again; and we
are told, a new monument will be set up for him by the parish,
to which he was a good benefactor.

9. The Custom-house, which since the late fire in Thames-
street, is ordered to be inlarged; but is not yet finished.

All these buildings are yet in building, and will all, in their
several places, be very great ornaments to the city.

10. A new street or range of houses taken out of the south
side of the Artillery Ground near Mprefields, also an enlarge-
ment to the new burying ground as it was formerly called, on
the north side of the same ground.

11. The iron ballustrade, or as others call it, balcony, on the
lanthorn upon the cupola of St. Paul's Church, gilded. It was
done at the cost and as the gift of an Irish nobleman, who
scarce lived to see it finished.

TS. A new bear-garden, called Figg's Theater, being a stage

376 DEFOE'S TOUR

for the gladiators or prize-fighters, and is built on the Tyburn
Road.

N.B. The gentlemen of the science, taking offence at its
being called Tyburn Road, though it really is so, will have it
called the Oxford Road; this publick edifice is fully finished,
and in use.

I conclude this account of London, with mentioning something
of the Account of Mortality, that is to say, the births and burials,
from whence Sir William Petty thought he might make some
calculations of the numbers of the inhabitants, and I shall only
take notice, that whereas, the general number of the burials in
the year 1666, and farther back, were from 17000 to 19000 in a
year, the last yearly bill for the year 1723, amounted as follows,

Christenings 19203. Burials 29197.

Here is to be observed, that the number of burials exceeding
so much the number of births, is, because as it is not the number
born, but the number christened that are set down, which is
taken from the parish register; so all the children of Dissenters
of every sort, Protestant, Popish and Jewish are omitted, also
all the children of foreigners, French, Dutch, &c. which are
baptized in their own churches, and all the children of those
who are so poor, that they cannot get them registred: So that if
a due estimate be made, the births may be very well supposed
to exceed the burials one year with another by many thousands.

It is not that I have no more to say of London, that I break
off here; but that I have no room to say it, and tho' some things
may be taken notice of by others, which I have pass'd over;
yet I have also taken notice of so many things which others
have omitted, that I claim the ballance in my favour.

I am, SIR,

Yours, &c.

THE END OF THE FIFTH LETTER
END OF VOL. I

EVERYMAN'S LIBRARY: A Selected List

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Bagehot, Walter (1826-7 7). LITERARY STUDIES, 1879. 2 vols. 520-1

BeSoo, Hflaire (1870-1953), STORIES, ESSAYS AND POEMS. 94g

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Canton, William (1845-1926). THE INVISIBLE PLAYMATE, 1894; W. V., HER BOOB?
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men and affairs. 703-4. PAST AND PRESENT, 1843. New Introduction by Dougla*
Jerrold. 608. SARTOR RESARTUS, 1838 ; and HEROES AND HERO-WORSHIP, 1841. 278
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SPEAREAN CRITICISM, 1849. Edited by Prof. T. M. Raysor (1960), 2 vola. 162, 183
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Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1803-82). ESSAYS, 1841-4. 12
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Gray, Thomas (1716-71). ESSAYS. (See Poetry.)

Hamilton, Alexander (1757-1804), and Others. THE FEDERALIST, 1787-8. 519

Hazlitt, William (1778-1830). LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH COMIC WRITERS, 1819: and

MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS. 411. LECTURES ON THE ENGLISH POETS, 1818, etc., 1825.

459. THE ROUND TABLE and CHARACTERS OF SHAKESPEAR'S PLAYS, 1817-18. 65.

TABLE TALK, 1821-2, 321

Holmes, Oliver Wendell (1809-94). THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE, 1858. 66

Hunt, Leigh (1784-1859). SELECTED ESSAYS. 78 essays. 829

Huxley, Aldous Leonard (b. 1894). STORIES, ESSAYS AND POEMS. 935

Johnson, Samuel (1709-84). THE RAMBLER. 994

Lamb, Charles (1775-1834). ESSAYS OF ELIA AND LAST ESSAYS OF ELIA, 1823-33. 14

Landor, Walter Savage (1775-1864). IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS, AND POEMB, 1824-9

1853. 89(j

Lawrence, David Herbert (1885-1930). STORIES, ESSAYS AND POEMS. 958

Locke, John (1632-1704). AN ESSAY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, 1690.

2 vols. 332 984

Lynd, Robert (1879-1949). ESSAYS ON LIFE AND LITERATURE. 990

Maoaulay, Thomas Babington, Lord (1800-59). CRITICAL AND HISTORICAL ESSAYS

1843. 2 vols. 225-6. MISCELLANEOUS ESSAYS, 1823-59; LAYS OF ANCIENT ROMS'

1842; and MISCELLANEOUS POEMS, 1812-47. 439

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Mazzini, Joseph (1805-72). THE DUTIES OF MAN. 224

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Napoleon Buonaparte (1769-1821). LETTERS. Some 300 letters. 995

Newman, John Henry (1801-90). ON THE SCOPE AND NATURE OF UNIVERSITY EDUCA-
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Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur (1863-1944). CAMBRIDGE LECTURES. 974

Rousseau, Jean Jacques (1712-78). EMTLE; OR, EDUCATION. 518

Ruskhi, John (1819-1900). SESAME, AND LILIES, 1864; THE Two PATHS, 1859; and

THE KING OF THE GOLDEN RlVER; OF THE BLACK BROTHERS. 1851. 219. THB

SEVEN LAMPS OF ARCHITECTURE, 1849. 207

Sevigne, Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de (1626-96). SELECTED LETTERS. 98
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Spencer, Herbert (1820-1903). ESSAYS ON EDUCATION, 1861. 504

Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729). THE TATLER, 1709-11. 993

st ??<& Laurence (1713-68). A SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY,

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2

Trench, Richard Chevenix (1807-86). ON TEE STUDY OF WORDS, 1851; and F.NLIS
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FICTION

Ainsworth, William Harrison (1805-82). OLD SAINT PAUL'S, 1841. The Great FIro. 522.
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American Short Stories of the 19th Century. 84

Andersen, Hans Christian (1805-75). FAIRY TALES AND STORIES. Reginald 8$ink
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Austen, Jane (1775-1817). EMMA, 1818. 24. MANSFIELD PARK, 1814, 23. PRIDB
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Balzac, Honore de (1799-1850). AT THE SIGN OP THE CAT AND RACKET, 1830; and
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Barbusse, Henri (1874-1935). UNDER FIRE, THE STORY OP A SQUAD, 1916. 798

Beaconsfield, Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of (1804-81). CONINGSBY, 1844. 635

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Bront, Anne (1820-49). THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL and AGNES GREY. 685
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Conrad, Joseph (1857-1924). LORD Jot, 1900. Typically set in the East ladies. 925.
THE NIGGER OF THE 'NARCISSUS'; TYPHOON; and THE SHADOW LONB. 980. Noe-
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rranlria TlAnina IftAS-ft. 229. OBnaiffPMAS STORIES. 1850-67. 414. DAVJD

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Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (1821-81). THE BROTHHRS KABAMAZQV, IM^Lrr -7

gS 1 iaa"..ss3s|rss-ew'ii^

IS&SSTStS: "SSJSfflCSaSfcSWaSSWS

4

Eliot, George. ADAM BEDS, 1859. 27. MIDDLEMAROH, 1872. 2 vols. 854-5. THE Mnx

ON THE FLOSS, 1880. 325. ROMOLA, 1863. The Florence of Savonarola. 231. SILAS

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English Short Stories. Thirty-six stories from Middle Ages to present^ time. 743

Fielding. Henry (1707-54). AMELIA, 1751. 2 vols. Amelia is drawn from Fielding's first

wife. 852-3. JONATHAN WILD, 1743 ; and JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO LISBON, 1755.

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1749. 2 vols. The first great English novel of humour. 355-6
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Forster, Edward Morgan (b. 1879). A PASSAGE TO INDIA, 1924. 972

Galsworthy, John (1867-1933). THE COUNTRY HOUSE. 917

Gaskell, Mrs Elizabeth (1810-65). CRANFORD, 1853. 83

Ghost Stories. Eighteen stories. 952

Gogol, Nikolay (1809-52). DEAD SOULS, 1842. 726

Goldsmith, Oliver (1728-74). THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD, 1766. 295

Gonoharov, Ivan (1812-91). OBLOMOV, 1857. Translated by Natatw Duddington. 878
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Grossmith, George (1847-1912), and Weedon (1853-1919). DIARY OF A NOBODY, 1894.

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DE PARIS, 1831. 422. TOILERS OF THE SEA, 1866. 509
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1898; and TEE ASPERN PAPERS, 1888. 912
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Jerome, Jerome K. (1859-1927), THREE MEN IN A BOAT and THREE MEN ON THE

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Lytton, Edward Bulwer, Baron (1803-73). THE LAST DAYS OF POMPEII, 1834. 80

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Marryat, Frederick (1792-1848). MR MIDSHDPMAN EASY. 82. THE SETTLERS IN

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Melville. Herman (1819-91). MOBY DICK, 1851. 179. TYPES, 1846 ; and BILLY BUDD

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Poland and Napoleon. 842

Modern Short Stones. Selected by John Hadfleld. Twenty stories. 954

Moore, George (1852-1933). ESTHER WATERS, 1894. 933

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Period of the Porteous Riots, 1736. 134. IVANHOE, 1820. A romance of the days of

Richard 1. 16. KENILWORTH, 1821. The tragic story of Amy Robsart, in Elizabeth

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A tale of adventure in Cumberland, about 1763. 141. ROB ROY, 1818. A romance of

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4

Shelley, Mary Wollstoneoraft (1797-1851). FRANKENSTEIN, 1818. 618

Shorter Novels. VOL. I: ELIZABETHAN. 824. VOL. II: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 841.

VOL. Ill: EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. All 3 vote, are edited by Philip Henderson. 856

* ' i896 - Tiansiatea by l

Smollett, Tobias (1721-71). THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER, 1771, 975.

PEREGRINE PICKLE, 1751. 2 vols. 838-9. RODERICK RANDOM, 1742. 790
Somerville, E. CE. (1858-1949), and Ross, Martin (1862-1915). EXPERIENCES op AN

IRISH R.M., 1908. 973

Stendhal (pseudonym of Henri Beyle, 1783-1842). SCARLET AND BLACK, 1831. Trans-

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Sterne, Laurence (1713-68). TRISTRAM SHANDY, 1760-7. 617

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-94). DR JEKYLL AND MR HYDE, 1886; THE MERRY

MEN, 1887: WILL o' THE MILL, 1878; MARKHEIM, 1886: THRAWN JANET, 1881;

OLALLA, 1885 ; THE TREASURE OF FRANCHARD. 767. THE MASTER OP BALLANTRAB,

1869; WEIR OF HERMISTON, 1896. 764. ST IVES, 1898. Completed by Sir Artnur

Qulller-Couch. 904. TREASURE ISLAND, 1883; and KIDNAPPED, 1886. 763
Story Book for Boys and Girls. Edited by Guy Pocock (1955). 934

Surtees, Robert Smith (1803-64). JoRROCKS's JAUNTS AND JOLLITIES, 1838. 817

Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745). GULLIVER'S TRAVELS, 1726. An unabridged edition. 60
Tales of Detection. Nineteen stories. 928

Thackeray, William Makepeace (1811-63). HENRY ESMOND, 1852. 73. THE NBWCOMBS,

1853-5. 2 vols 465-6. PENDENNIS, 1848-50. 2 vols. 425-6. VANITY FAIR, 1847-8.

298. THE VIRGINIANS, 1857-9. 2 vola. 507-8
Tolstoy, Count Leo (1828-1910). ANNA KAHENINA, 1873-7. Translated by RocheUe S.

Townsend, 2 vols. 612-13. MASTER AND MAN, 1895; and OTHER PARABLES AND

TALES. 469. WAR AND PEACE, 1864-9. 3 vols. 525-7
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30. DOCTOR THORNS, 1858. 360. FRAMLEY PARSONAGE, 1861. 181. THE SMALL

HOUSE AT ALLINGTON, 1864. 361. THE LAST CHRONICLE OF BARSET, 1867. 2 vols.

391-2.
Turgenev, Ivan (1818-83). FATHERS AM> SONS, 1862. Translated by Dr Avrtt Pyman.

742. SMOKE, 1867. Translated by Natalie Duddington. 988. VIRGIN SOIL, 1877.

Translated by RocheUe S. Townsend. 528
Twain, Mark (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910). TOM SAWYER,

1876; and HUCKLEBERRY FINN, 1884. 976

Verne, Jules (1828-1905). FIVE WEEKS rs A BALLOON, 1862, translated by Arthur

Chambers; and AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, translated by P. Desayea. 779.

TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA, 1869. 319
Voltaire, Francois Marie Arouet de (1694-1778). CANDIDE, AND OTHBB TALES. Smol-

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Walpole, Hugh Seymour (1884-1941). MB PERRIN AND MR TRATT.L, 1911. 918

Wells, Herbert George (1866-1946). ANN VERONICA, 1909. 977. THE WHEELS OF

CHANCE, 1896; and THE TIME MACHINE, 1895. 915

Woolf, Virginia (1882-1941). To THE LIGHTHOUSE, 1927. 949

Zola, Emile (1840-1902). GERMINAL, 1885. Translated by Havelock EUi* 897

HISTORY

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Translated by 0. N. Garmoraway, F.R.HIST.SOC. 624

Bede, the Venerable (673-735). THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH
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Carlyle, Thomas (1795-1881). THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1837. 2 vols. 31-2

Chesterton, Cecil (1879-1918). A HISTORY OP THE U.S.A., 1917. Edited by Prof. D.W

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Complete text. 6 vols. 434-6, 474-o

Green, John Richard (1837-83). A SHORT HISTORY, 1874. 727-8

Holinshed, Raphael (d. 1580?). HOLINSHED'S CHRONICLE, 1578. 800

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VottSre^anoois Marie Arouet de (1694-1778). THE AGE OP Louis XIV, 1751. Trana;

lated by M artun P. PoUaek.

5

ORATORY

British Orations. I960 edition. 7u

Burke, Edmund (1729-97). SPEECHES AND LETTERS ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS. 340

Demosthenes (384-322 B.C.). THE CROWN, AND OTHER ORATIONS, KJ&

Lincoln, Abraham (1809-65). SPEECHES AND LETTERS, 1832-65. 206

POETRY AND DRAMA

Anglo-Saxon Poetry. A.D. 650 to 1000. Translated by Prof. R. K. Gordon, M.A. 794

Arnold, Matthew (1822-88). COMPLETE POEMS. 33!

Ballads, A Book of British. 570

Beaumont, Francis (1684-1616), and Fletcher, John (1579-1625). SELECT PLATS, soe

Blake, William (1757-1827). POEMS AND PROPHECIES. Edited by Max Plowman. 799

Browning. Robert (1812-89). POEMS AND PLATS, 1833-64. 2 vols. 41-2. POEMS

1871-90. 964 '

Burns, Robert (1759-96). POEMS AND SONGS. An authoritative edition. 94

Byron, George Gordon Noel, Lord (1788-1824). THE POETICAL AND DRAMATIC WORKS

3 vols. Edited by Guy Pocock. 486-8

Century. A CENTURY OF HUMOROUS VERSE, 1850-1950. 813

Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1343-1400). OANTERBURT TALES. New standard text edited bv

A. C. Cawley, M.A., PH.D. 307. TROILUS AND CRISEYDE. 992 *

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor (1772-1834). THE GOLDEN BOOK. is

Cowper, William (1731-1800). POEMS. 872

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). THE DIVINE COMEDY. H. P. Cory's Translation. 308

Donne, John (1573-1631). COMPLETE POEMS. Edited, with a revised Intro., by Hugh

PAnson Fausset. 867

Dryden, John (1631-1700). POEMS. Edited by Bonamy Dobrte, O.B.E., M.A. 9io

Eighteenth-century Plays. Edited by John Hampden. 818

English Galaxy of Shorter Poems, The. Chosen and Edited by Gerald BuUett. 959

English Religious Verse. Edited by G. Looey May. 937

Everyman, and Medieval Miracle Plays. Edited by A. C. Cawley, M.A., PH.D. 381

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (1749-1832). FAXTST. Both parts of the tragedy, in the

re-edited translation of Sir Theodore Martin. 335

Golden Book of Modern English Poetry, The. Edited by Thomas CaldweU and Philip

Henderson. 921

Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics, The, 1861. Compiled by Francis Turner

Palgrave (1824-97). Enlarged edition, containing 88-page supplement. 96

Golden Treasury of Longer Poems, The, Revised edition (1954 ). 746

Goldsmith, Oliver (1728-74). POEMS AND PLAYS. Edited by Austin Dobson. 415

Gray, Thomas (1716-71). POEMS: WITH A SELECTION OP LETTERS AND ESSAYS. 628

Heine, Heinrioh (c. 1797-1856). PROSE AND POETRY. With Matthew Arnold's essay

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Marx-Avehng. 494. GHOSTS, 1881; THE WARRIORS AT HELGBLAND, 1857 ; and Air

ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, 1882. Translated by R. Farmiharson Sharp. 552. PEBB

GYNT, 1867. Translated by R. Farguharson Sharp. 747. THE PRETENDERS, 1864'

PILLARS OF SOCIETY, 1877 ; and ROSMERSHOLM, 1887. Translated by R. Farouharson

Sharp. 659. BRAND, a poetic drama. 1866. Translated by F. E. Garrett. 716.

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International Modern Plays. 939

Jonson, Ben (1573-1637). PLAYS. 2 vols. Complete collection. 489-90

Keats, John (1795-1821). POEMS. Kevised, reset edition (1944). Ed. by Gerald Buttett.

Kingsley, Charles (1819-75). POEMS. 793

La Fontaine, Jean de (1621-95). FABLES, 1668. Sir Edward Marsh Translation. 991
'Langland, William' (1330?-1400i). PIERS PLOWMAN, 1362. 571

T ' . Gotthold Ephraim (1729-81). LAOCOON, 1766. etc. 843

l "enry Wadsworth (1807-82). POEMS, 182$-66. 382

stopher (1564-93). PLAYS AND POEMS. New edition by M. R. Ridley, M.A.

383

Maton.John (1608-74). POEMS. New edition by Prof. S. A. WH0ht, M.A. 384

Minor Elizabethan Drama. 2 vols. Vol. I. Tragedy. Vol. H. Comedy. 491-2

Minor Poets of the Seventeenth Century. Edited and revised by R. G. Howarth B.A.

B.LHT.,F.R^.L. 373

Modern Plays. 910

Moliere, Jean Baptist* de (1622-73). COMEDIES. 2 vols. 830-1

New Golden Treasury. 695
Persian Poems. Selected and edited by Prof. A. J. Artenv, M.A., UTT.D,, P.B.A. 996

Poe, Edgar Allan (1809-49). POEMS AND ESSAYS. 791
Poems of our Time. An Anthology edited by Richard Church, O.B.E., M. M. Bozman

nd ffdtft Si*w&U, DXTTT., D.B.B. Nearly 400 poems by about i ISO I poets. 981

6

^ COLLEOTED POEMS. Edited (1956) by Prof.

t ..., ... 7/n

Restoration Plays. g[u

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-82). POEM? AND TRANSLATIONS 627

ffl f^T^^ 1 !S? ] ?^ lfi ^~f 1G1 - 8) - Complcte Editiai: Cambridge Test. Glossary
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SheUey, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822). POETICAL WORKS. 2 VoL9. 257-8

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816). COMPLETE PLAYS 95

Silver Poets of the Sixteenth Century. Edited by Gerald BuHett. 985

Stevenson, Robert Louis (1850-94). POEMS. A CHILD'S GARDEN OF VERSES, 1885;
UNDERWOODS, 1887 : SONGS OP TRAVEL, 1898; and BALLADS, 1890. 76B

, , , .

Swinburne, Algernon Char les (1837-1909), POEMS AND PROSE. A selection, edited with
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Synge, J. M. (1871-1909). PLAYS, POEMS AND PROSB. 968

Tchekhov, Anton (1860-1904). PLAYS AND STORIES. 941

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord (1809-92). POEMS. 2 vols. 44 626

Twenty-four One- Act Plays. 947

Webster, John (1580 ?-1625 ?), and Ford, John (1586-1C39). SELECTED PLAYS. 899
Whitman, Walt (1819-92). LEAVES OP GRASS, 1855-92. New edition (1947). 673
Wilde, Oscar (1854-1900). PLAYS, PROSE WRTTLVGS AND POEMS. 858

Wordsworth, William (1770-1850). POEMS. Ed. Philip Wayne, M.A. 3 vote. 203, 311, 998

REFERENCE

Reader's Guide to Everyman's Library. Compiled by A.. J. Hoppt, This volume Is a new
compilation and gives in one alphabetical sequence the names of all the authors,
titles and subjects in Everyman's Library. 889

Many volumes formerly included in Everyman's Library reference section an now
included in Everyman's Reference Library and are bound in larger format.

ROMANCE

Aucassln and Nicolette, etc. Translated by Eugene Mason. 497

Boccaccio, Giovanni (1313-75). DECAMERON, 1471. The unabridged tyff Translation.

2 vols. 845-6

Bunyan, John (1628-88). PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, Parts I and II, 1678-84. Beset edition.

204
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616). DON QUIXOTE DE LA MA^CHA. Translated

by P. A. Motteux. 2 vols. 385-6

Chr&ien de Troyea (fl. 12th cent.). ARTHURIAN ROMANOFF. 698

Kalevala, or The Land of Heroes. Translated by W. F. Kirby. 2 vols, 259-60

Mabinogion, The. Translated by Gwyn and Thomas Jones. 9 7

Malory. Sir Thomas (fl. 1400 ?-70). LE MORTE D'AR-rnrR. 45-6

Marie de France (12th century), LAYS op, AND OTHER FRENCH LEGENDS. 557

Njal's Saga. THE STORY OF BURNT NJAL (written about 1280-90). Translated from t! e

Icelandic by Sir O. W. Dasent (1861). ^ 558

Rabelais, Francois (14941-1553). THE HEROIC DEEDS OP GARGANTCA AND PANTA-

GRUEL, 1532-5. 2 vols. Urguhart and Motteutfs unabridged Translation, 1653-94.

8287

SCIENCE

Boyle. Robert (1627-91). THE SCEPTICAL CHYMIST, 1661. 559

Darwin, Charles (1809-82). THE ORIGIN OP SPECIES, 1859. Embodies Darwin's final

Jgl
922

EddlngtonfArthur Stanley (1882-1944). THE NATURE OP THE PHYSICAL WORLD, 1028.

Euclid (fl. c. 330-C.275 B.C.). THE ELEMENTS op EUCLID. Ed. Isaac Todhunter. 891
Faraday, Michael (1791-1867). EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCHES IN ELECTRICITY, *839-*5.

Harvey, William (1578-1657). THE CIRCULATION OP THE BLOOD. 262

FUcardo; David (1772-1823). THE PRINCIPLES OP POU^OAL ECONOMY. 1817. 590
Smith, Adam (1723-90). THE WEALTH OP NATIONS, 1766. 2 vols. 412-13

White, Gilbert (1720-93). A NATURAL HISTORY OP SELBORNE, 1789. New editkm

WoU 9 stonecralt, Mary (1759-97), THE RIGHTS OP WOMAN, 1792; and Mill, John StwuJ
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THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY

Bacon, Francis (1561-1626). THE ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING, 1605. 710

Berkeley, George (1685-1753). A NEW THEOET OF VISION, 1709. 483

Browne, Sir Thomas (1605-82). EELIGIO MEDICI, 1642. go

Bunyan, John (1628-88). GRACE ABOUNDING, 1666; and THE LDJE AND DEATH OP MR
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Burton, Robert (1577-1640). THE ANATOMY op MELANCHOLY, 1621. 3 vola. 886-8
Chinese Philosophy in Classical Times. Covering the period 1500 B.O.-A.D. 100. 973
Descartes, Ren6 (1596-1650). A DISCOURSE ON METHOD, 1637; MEDITATIONS ON THE
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Ellis, Havelock (1859-1939). SELECTED ESSAYS. Sixteen essays. 930

Gore, Charles (1853-1932). THE PHILOSOPHY OP THE GOOD LDTE, 1930. 924

Hindu Scriptures. Edited by Nicol Macnicol, M.A., D.UTT., D.D. 944

Hobbes, Thomas (1588-1679). LEVIATHAN, 1651. 691

Hooker, Richard (1554-1600). OP THE LAWS OP ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY, 1597. 2 vols.

Hume, David (1711-76). A TREATISE OP HUMAN NATURE, 1739. 2 vols. 548-9

James, William (1842-1910). PAPERS ON PHILOSOPHY. 739

Kant, Immamiel (1724-1804). CRITIQUE OP PURE REASON, 1781. Translated by
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King Edward VI (1537-53). THE FIRST (1549) AND SECOND (1552) PRAYER BOOKS. 448
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Malthus, Thomas Robert (1766-1834). AN ESSAY ON THE PRINCD?LE OP POPULATION
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Pascal, Blaise (1623-62). PENSEES. 1670, Translated by John Warrinffton. 874
Ramayana and Mahabharata. Condensed into English verse by Romesh Dutt, O.I.E. 403
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Spinoza, Benedictus de (1632-77). ETHICS, 1677, etc. Translated by Andrew Boyle. 481
Swedenbor*. Emanuel (1688-1772). THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. 1771. 893
Thomas a Kempis (1380 1-1471). THE IMITATION OP CHRIST, 1471. 484
Thomas Aquinas (1225-74). SELECTED WRITINGS. 953

TRAVEL AND TOPOGRAPHY

Borrow, George (1803-81). THE BDSLE IN SPAIN, 1842. 151. WILD WALES, 1862. 49
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JOHNSON, 1786. 387

Calder6n de la Barca, Mme (1804-82). LDTE IN MEXICO, 1843. 664

Cobbett, WOUam (1762-1835). RURAL RIDES, 1830. 3 vols. 638-9

Cook, James (1728-79). VOYAGES OP DISCOVERY. Ed by John Barrow, P.R.S., F.S.A. 99
CrAvecoBur, J. Hector St John de (1735-1813). LETTERS PROM AN AMERICAN FARMER,

1782. gxn

Darwin, Charles (1809-82). THE VOYAGE OP THE 'BEAGLE', 1839. 104

Defoe, Daniel (1661 ?-1731). A TOUR THROUGH ENGLAND AND WALES, 1724-6. 2 vols.

Kinglake, Alexander (1809-91). EOTHEN, 1844. 82 987

Lane, Edward William (1801-76). MODERN EGYPTIANS, 1836. 315

Park, Mungo (1771-1806). TRAVELS. 205

Polo, Marco (1254-1324). TRAVELS. 306

Portuguese Voyages, 1498-1663. Edited by Charles David Lev. 986

W tB!SS i ?&o* ^fej 1 ! 50 ' 9 *)- ** INLAN3 > VOYAGE, 1878; TRAVELS WITH A
DONKEY, 1879 jandTHB SILVERADO SQUATTERS, 1883. 766

Stow, John (1525 ?~1605). THE SURVEY OP LONDON. Elizabethan London. 589

Wakefteld, Edward gibbon (179&-1862). A LETTER PROM SYDlSsY, ete? 828

Waterton, Charles (1782-1865). WANDEBINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA, 1825. 773

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